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Phnom Penh – Cambodians took to the polls Sunday to participate in controversial legislative elections, which look like a plebiscite for Prime Minister Hun Sen in the absence of the main opposition force dissolved in November 2017.
" All polls opened at 07:00 " (00:00 GMT), told AFP a spokesman for the Electoral Commission, and preliminary results are expected in the evening.
The strong man of Cambodia has been in power for 33 years and his movement, the Cambodian People's Party (PPC), has won all elections since 1998.
Hun Sen, 65, and his wife, Bun Rany, voted in Takhmao, a small town located about fifteen kilometers from the capital, the Prime Minister brandishing in front of the press his finger covered with ink as the electoral procedure, according to journalists from AFP present on the spot.
" This election is very important for me, I come to vote because I want happiness, development and peace for the country ," said Im Chanthan, a 54-year-old voter.
More than eight million voters are registered on the electoral roll and 80,000 police officers were mobilized for this vote, the police being ready to " prevent any act of terrorism and chaos ".
The climate was considerably tense in the country with the dissolution of Cambodia's National Rescue Party (CNRP), the main opposition force, in late 2017, and the imprisonment of its leader, Kem Sokha.
" The CPP will continue to be victorious ," Hun Sen said Friday in front of tens of thousands of his supporters gathered in Phnom Penh during a final major election rally. He added that he took " legal measures to eliminate the traitors who were attempting to overthrow the government ," a reference to the CNRP accused of plotting against the regime with the support of the United States.
– Abstention Rate –
One of the key questions in the vote is the abstention rate, while CNRP founder Sam Rainsy, who was exiled to France to escape prison, called for a boycott of these legislative, qualified of " electoral joke ".
In 2013, voter turnout reached 69%, according to the Electoral Commission. And voters, faced with the corruption that affects the kingdom, had voted en mbade for the CNRP, which had won more than 44% of the vote, taking the Hun Sen regime short.
The government has since brandished the threat of an era of chaos in the country still traumatized by the Khmer Rouge regime, guilty of genocide that killed nearly two million people in the 1970s.
Surfant on this threat, independent media were closed, another was taken over by the regime, while several legal actions were launched against representatives of civil society.
Faced with this drift, while the powerful and loyal Chinese ally announced dispatching " observers ", Washington and Brussels suspended their badistance to these elections.
Rhona Smith, UN rapporteur for Cambodia, urged the government to respect the freedom of voters, stressing that calling for a boycott was allowed and should not be punished.
Hun Sen is accustomed to shock statements against the opposition. He once promised " hell " to his opponents, invited to " prepare their coffins " in case of dispute.
Became Prime Minister in 1985, only 32 years old, this ex-Khmer Rouge, who has always played down his role in this regime, has woven a web of tight mesh to ensure its political longevity. He placed his three sons, who hold key positions in the army and the ruling party, at the heart of the scheme and they were actively involved in the campaign.
Twenty small officially registered parties have meanwhile made a discreet campaign.
This fictitious election " will be easy to win ," Sam Rainsy said Saturday in a statement, but Hun Sen " will face a much more difficult task, if not impossible: "to convince the international community that its regime is anything but a dictatorship" and "to try to evade commercial and financial sanctions"
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