‘Victory day’: Cambodia heir leads final rally ahead of one-sided election

Cambodian leader Hun Sen’s eldest son and chosen successor hailed “victory day” in a final rambunctious rally Friday, ahead of one-sided elections that his father’s ruling party is guaranteed to win. One of the world’s longest-serving rulers, Hun Sen has played off tensions between the United States and China to buttress his grip on power, although critics say that more than 30 years after UN-brokered peace accords ended decades of bloody conflict, Cambodian democracy is in a sorry state.

A crowd of tens of thousands of supporters on motorbikes, dressed in bright blue, gathered under grey skies in the early morning to hear Hun Manet’s speech before he roared off in a huge celebratory motorcade parade around the capital Phnom Penh.

It was the final rally before Sunday’s election, which has seen all meaningful opposition either disqualified or exiled, leaving voters no choice but to hand Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) a majority in the 125-member parliament. “Today is a victory day for us,” Hun Manet said under a giant poster of his father, urging supporters to vote for the ruling party. “Only the CPP has the ability to lead Cambodia.”

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