PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: The landslide election victory of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party essentially puts Cambodia under one party-rule and risks damaging the country's already fragile democracy, rights groups said Wednesday (30 July).
Hun Sen's party claims it swept 90 of 123 seats in last weekend's parliamentary elections.
The result is expected to usher Hun Sen, who has ruled for 23 years, into a new 5-year term and give his party total domination of the lower house _ a result that human rights groups are calling dangerous for democracy.
"We have long feared that the country was heading toward becoming a one-party rule," said Thun Saray, a prominent human rights activist and head of election monitoring group Comfrel. "The election results are only confirming our fears. The power of the ruling party is now so great that no one can challenge it."
Official results from the election are expected later this week. But few dispute the tally issued by the CPP, which appears to have cemented a two-thirds majority in the lower house and increased its presence from 73 seats in the outgoing chamber.
Hun Sen's government has often been accused of corruption, human rights abuses, curtailing people's rights to peaceful protests and forcibly evicting poor citizens off their land so that it can be used for commercial development. The government has dismissed the accusations.
Critics say the ruling party's new dominance in parliament will weaken the already limited system of checks-and-balances and make it more difficult to voice dissent and air grievances about social injustices, such as the ongoing problem of the rich stealing land from the poor, said Thun Saray.
While Hun Sen's power is becoming stronger, "our democratic space will be smaller and smaller," said Kek Galabru, president of Cambodian human rights group Licadho.
Cheam Yeap, a senior ruling party member, dismissed the criticism, saying his party is not a "dictatorship."
The ruling party will use its victory to strengthen, not weaken, democracy and the rule of law "to win more support and trust from the people."
Cambodian election monitoring groups say the opposition Sam Rainsy Party won 26 seats _ a two-seat gain from the 2003 polls _ and have confirmed the ruling party's tally of 90.
The biggest blow was suffered by the royalist Funcinpec party, the winner of the U.N. sponsored election in 1993. It now will get two seats compared to 26 five years ago.
The party of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who Funcinpec sacked him as leader two years ago for alleged incompetence, will also get two seats. The other three seats are going to Human Rights Party of Kem Sokha, a former human rights activist once jailed in a criminal defamation lawsuit filed on Hun Sen's behalf.
Hun Sen has been at the center of Cambodian politics since 1985, when he became the world's youngest prime minister at age 33. He has held or shared the top job ever since, bullying and outfoxing his opponents to stay in power.
Sunday's voting was the fourth parliamentary election since the United Nations brokered a peace deal for the country in 1991, a process meant to end decades of civil unrest that included the 1975-79 genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge.
Martin Callanan, the head of an EU election monitoring team, said Tuesday the elections fell short of international standards because of biases in favor of the ruling party.
But he said alleged vote irregularities would have to be on a very large scale to invalidate that result, which is that Hun Sen's party "clearly has a very large majority."
