Polls closed in Cambodia’s general election amid criticism of a crackdown against dissenters by long-serving prime minister Hun Sen, who is set to hold on to power after nearly 33 years in office.

Rights groups said on Sunday that the vote was neither free nor fair in the absence of any significant challenger to Hun Sen and amid voter intimidation.

The National Election Commission (NEC) said in a document sent after polls closed that voter turnout was 70.41% nationwide - but at polling stations in the capital, Phnom Penh, election workers outnumbered voters.

The election is the country’s sixth since 1993 when it emerged from decades of war, marked by death and destruction at the hands of Pol Pot’s genocidal regime.



Rights groups have denounced the election as a “sham”, following months of intimidation by Hun Sen and the ruling party Cambodian People’s Party and the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.

Officials manned polling stations in Phnom Penh where 12 parliamentary seats are up for grabs.



Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany arrived early in the morning at a polling station in in Kandal province. Smiling, he greeted voters before casting his ballot and holding up his ink-stained finger as cameras flashed.

Nineteen political parties are running against Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, but none are strongly critical of the government.

The opposition CNRP, appealing to younger voters and those seeking change, narrowly lost the last general election in 2013.

Authorities arrested CNRP leader Kem Sokha and charged him with treason in September. Two months later, the supreme court dissolved the CNRP, which held 55 seats in Cambodia’s 123-seat National Assembly, after finding it guilty of trying to overthrow the government.

Just two days before this election, authorities shut the websites of some independent media. But the government has insisted that the vote will be free and fair.

“This election is about the Cambodian people’s will and power,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said in an interview. “People are highly determined to keep peace and stability.”

Relations with the West, particularly the United States, are strained, pushing Cambodia closer to China, the single largest investor in Cambodia.



On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a Cambodia Democracy Act, paving the way for sanctions to be imposed against Hun Sen’s inner circle.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged the Cambodian government to guarantee democratic rights.

“He calls upon the government to uphold international human rights standards and in particular to ensure guarantees for civil society actors and political parties to exercise their democratic rights,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres.

Preliminary results are expected at about 6pm local time. Official results are expected in mid-August.