The party of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has declared a landslide victory in a general election critics widely dismissed as a sham aimed at cementing the party's rule before an expected transfer of power to his eldest son.
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The contest was effectively a one-horse race, with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), a political behemoth with a vast war chest, facing no viable opponent after a ruthless, years-long crackdown on its rivals.
Polls closed with a turnout of 84 per cent according to the election committee, with 8.1 million people voting in a much-criticised contest between CPP and 17 mostly obscure parties, none of which won seats in the last election in 2018.
The only opponent with any real clout was disqualified from running.
"We've won in a landslide ... but we can't calculate the number of seats yet," CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said.
Self-styled strongman Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years, had brushed off all Western concern about the election's credibility, determined to prevent any obstacle in his carefully calibrated transition to his anointed successor and eldest son, Hun Manet.
No timeframe had been given for the handover until Thursday, when Hun Sen signalled his son "could be" prime minister next month, depending on "whether Hun Manet will be able to do it or not".
He needed to win a National Assembly seat to become prime minister, which was likely.
Hun Sen said the turnout - the second highest in three decades - proved calls by his mostly overseas-based rivals to undermine the election with protest ballots had failed.
Analysts had expected the transition to come mid-term, giving time for Hun Manet to earn legitimacy with the public and political elite.
"Transferring power while he is still physically and mentally well allows Hun Sen to strongly protect his son from any internal challenges," said Gordon Conochie, an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University and author of a book on Cambodia's democracy.
"As long as Hun Sen is around, nobody will move against Hun Manet."
Hun Manet has given few media interviews and no clues about his vision for Cambodia and its 16 million people.
He earned a master's degree at New York University and a doctorate at the University of Bristol, both in economics, and attended the West Point military academy, helping him rise through the ranks of Cambodia's military to army chief and deputy armed forces commander.
Major powers will be watching closely for signs of whether Hun Manet will maintain the authoritarian status quo of his father or pursue greater liberalisation and a more Western style of democracy.
A key focus will be if he seeks to steer Cambodia out of the orbit of China and patch up ties with the United States that have perennially been strained by his father's iron-fisted approach.
Australian Associated Press
