INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
The Associated Press
Published: July 27, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is widely expected to extend his 23-year tenure with a victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, buoyed by a surge of nationalism amid a tense border dispute with neighboring Thailand.
Hun Sen's reputation as a strongman who intimidates rivals has served him well, with voters rallying around the leader as Cambodian troops face off with Thai soldiers for a second week at a disputed 11th century Hindu temple on the border.
The 57-year-old Hun Sen, Asia's longest serving leader, was forecast to win the vote even before the military standoff escalated earlier this month. But patriotic passions over Preah Vihear temple and Hun Sen's firm stance against Thailand have swayed many undecided voters in his favor, analysts say.
"Everybody now supports the government because this is a national issue," said Kek Galabru, a prominent Cambodian human rights activist and election monitor. "More people will vote for (Hun Sen) to give him more power to deal with Preah Vihear."
More than 8 million of Cambodia's 14 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday's election. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0000 GMT) and unofficial party results were expected a few hours after polling stations closed at 3 p.m. (0800 GMT). Official figures were expected later in the week.
Eleven parties are vying for seats in the 123-seat National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, with the winner forming a new government to run the country for the next five years.
Few doubt that Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party, which held 73 of the National Assembly's 123 seats during the past five-year-term, will return with an overwhelming majority. Least of all, Hun Sen.
"I wish to state it very clearly this way: No one can defeat Hun Sen," the prime minister said earlier this year.
Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985, when he became prime minister of a Vietnam-installed communist government after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
Internationally, he has faced criticism for alleged corruption and human rights abuses. But Hun Sen argues that his tenure has ushered in peace and stability after the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign from 1975-1979, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people.
A former Khmer Rouge soldier himself, Hun Sen has embraced free-market policies that have made Cambodia's economy one of the fastest growing in Asia, expanding at 11 percent in each of the past three years.
The opposition Sam Rainsy Party, which held 24 seats in the lower house of parliament, campaigned for greater attention to human rights, the country's poor and an end to alleged corruption.
Son Chhay, an opposition lawmaker, said an estimated 50 percent of Cambodians live on less than US$1 a day.
"Government corruption is the major thing. We have to fight against it to make sure that the people receive a fair share of what the country is getting," he said.
But such standard election issues have been upstaged by the military standoff with Thailand.
The controversy revolves around 1.8 square miles (4.6 kilometers) of land that has been in dispute since French colonialists withdrew from Cambodia in the 1950s.
The International Court of Justice awarded the temple site to Cambodia in 1962, but anger flared in Thailand last month after Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej backed Cambodia's successful bid for the temple to be listed as a U.N. World Heritage Site.
Thailand sent troops to the border July 15 after Thai anti-government demonstrators assembled near the temple. Cambodia responded by sending its own troops to the border.
The two countries plan to resume negotiations on the border row Monday. Cambodia says it will renew a call for the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue if the talks fail again.
The Associated Press
Published: July 27, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is widely expected to extend his 23-year tenure with a victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, buoyed by a surge of nationalism amid a tense border dispute with neighboring Thailand.
Hun Sen's reputation as a strongman who intimidates rivals has served him well, with voters rallying around the leader as Cambodian troops face off with Thai soldiers for a second week at a disputed 11th century Hindu temple on the border.
The 57-year-old Hun Sen, Asia's longest serving leader, was forecast to win the vote even before the military standoff escalated earlier this month. But patriotic passions over Preah Vihear temple and Hun Sen's firm stance against Thailand have swayed many undecided voters in his favor, analysts say.
"Everybody now supports the government because this is a national issue," said Kek Galabru, a prominent Cambodian human rights activist and election monitor. "More people will vote for (Hun Sen) to give him more power to deal with Preah Vihear."
More than 8 million of Cambodia's 14 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday's election. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0000 GMT) and unofficial party results were expected a few hours after polling stations closed at 3 p.m. (0800 GMT). Official figures were expected later in the week.
Eleven parties are vying for seats in the 123-seat National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, with the winner forming a new government to run the country for the next five years.
Few doubt that Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party, which held 73 of the National Assembly's 123 seats during the past five-year-term, will return with an overwhelming majority. Least of all, Hun Sen.
"I wish to state it very clearly this way: No one can defeat Hun Sen," the prime minister said earlier this year.
Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985, when he became prime minister of a Vietnam-installed communist government after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
Internationally, he has faced criticism for alleged corruption and human rights abuses. But Hun Sen argues that his tenure has ushered in peace and stability after the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign from 1975-1979, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people.
A former Khmer Rouge soldier himself, Hun Sen has embraced free-market policies that have made Cambodia's economy one of the fastest growing in Asia, expanding at 11 percent in each of the past three years.
The opposition Sam Rainsy Party, which held 24 seats in the lower house of parliament, campaigned for greater attention to human rights, the country's poor and an end to alleged corruption.
Son Chhay, an opposition lawmaker, said an estimated 50 percent of Cambodians live on less than US$1 a day.
"Government corruption is the major thing. We have to fight against it to make sure that the people receive a fair share of what the country is getting," he said.
But such standard election issues have been upstaged by the military standoff with Thailand.
The controversy revolves around 1.8 square miles (4.6 kilometers) of land that has been in dispute since French colonialists withdrew from Cambodia in the 1950s.
The International Court of Justice awarded the temple site to Cambodia in 1962, but anger flared in Thailand last month after Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej backed Cambodia's successful bid for the temple to be listed as a U.N. World Heritage Site.
Thailand sent troops to the border July 15 after Thai anti-government demonstrators assembled near the temple. Cambodia responded by sending its own troops to the border.
The two countries plan to resume negotiations on the border row Monday. Cambodia says it will renew a call for the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue if the talks fail again.
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