In a major development, the eldest son of Cambodia's long-term ruler Hun Manet has been appointed as the country's next Prime Minister in a formality confirming the transition of power. This came nearly two weeks after Sen stepped down as the world's longest-serving leader, he issued a decree stating Hun Manet will succeed Hun Sen.
Earlier on Saturday, the country's electoral body announced the final results of the election, sealing a landslide victory for the ruling party of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen and a mandate for the next five years.
In an announcement on TVK state television and government social media platforms, the country’s National Election Committee said Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won 120 of 125 available seats in the July 23 general election. The royalist Funcinpec Party won five seats, while none of the other 16 political parties gained any seats.
Who is Cambodia's new PM, Hun Manet?
Hun Manet won his first seat in Parliament in the July election, and the handover from his father is part of a larger, generational shift: Many younger lawmakers are expected to take up ministerial positions, including Hun Sen’s youngest son and others related to older party members.
Many were educated in the West, like Hun Manet, who has a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University in Britain, all in economics.
After the royal decree was announced, Hun Sen posted on Telegram and the X social media platform that he was stepping down to give a “chance to the successors to lead.”
Sen has been in power for 38 years
Prime Minister Sen has been in power for 38 years, and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party is virtually guaranteed a landslide victory, since the Candlelight Party, the sole other contender capable of mounting a credible challenge, was barred on a technicality from contesting the polls by the National Election Committee.
Under Hun Sen, Cambodia was elevated from a low-income country to lower middle-income status in 2015, and expects to attain middle-income status by 2030, according to the World Bank.
But at the same time, the gap between the rich and poor has greatly widened, deforestation has spread at an alarming rate, and there has been widespread land grabbing by Hun Sen’s Cambodian allies and foreign investors.
After a challenge from the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party in 2013 that the CPP barely overcame at the polls, Hun Sen responded by going after leaders of the opposition, and eventually the country’s sympathetic courts dissolved the party.
(With inputs from agency)
