A poster of Cambodia's Prime Minister and Cambodian People's Party (CPP) President Hun Sen is seen along a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
More than half-a-million spoilt ballots in Cambodia's general election represent a protest against the vote that critics have called a sham, the opposition and an analyst said on Monday.
Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has said it won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs at Sunday's election, held without the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was dissolved by a court, and had its leader, Kem Sokha, jailed on treason charges.
As many as 594,843 votes, or 8.4 percent, of the 7.64 million votes cast, were invalid and spoiled, figures from the National Election Committee showed.
By comparison, spoiled ballots in the last election, in 2013, comprised just 1.6 percent of the total.
Voter turnout for Cambodia's general election on Sunday was 80.49 percent, the National Election Commission (NEC) said.In the previous general election in 2013 turnout was 69.61 percent, or 6.73 million voters.The announcement came after polls closed in the election which some have called a sham because of the lack of any credible opposition to long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen.Polls close in Cambodia election, PM Hun Sen set to extend rule"The total number of people who voted was 6.74 million or about 80.49 percent. This is the success of the election," Sik Bun Hok, chairman of the NEC, said in a televised news conference."This time is higher," he added. "Cambodia should be proud."
Voter turnout for Cambodia election 80.49 pct
Polls closed in Cambodia's contentious national election on Sunday with rights groups saying the vote was neither free nor fair in the absence of any significant challenger to Prime Minister Hun Sen and voter intimidation.Hun Sen's opponents called for an election boycott.The National Election Commission (NEC) said in a document sent after polls closed that voter turnout was 70.41 percent nationwide.But scenes on the ground in the capital Phnom Penh painted a different picture. At a polling station near the river, election workers outnumbered voters and a slow trickle of people arrived throughout the day.Another polling station at a school was quiet with a handful of voters casting their ballot in the mid-afternoon heat.One Dutch tourist visiting Cambodia on holiday said he did not realise it was election day."Is it election day? I didn't know. Seems very quiet, like a normal Sunday," said the tourist, who declined to be identified to protect his privacy.Critics say the election is a backward step for democracy in Cambodia, marred by intimidation by the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the jailing of its leader, Kem Sokha, on treason charges.ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said in a statement that the vote took place in a "highly repressive political environment".Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who defected from Pol Pot's murderous regime, has ruled Cambodia for more than 30 years and is the world's longest serving prime minister.Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, told Reuters in an e-mail that many voters grudgingly went to the polls out of fear. Authorities have warned that anyone boycotting the vote will be seen as a "traitor."One voter at a polling station by the river at Preap Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh said not voting was "too much trouble"."I did not want to vote but I did vote," said the man, who asked not to be identified.CPP is banking on a high voter turn-out to bestow a veneer of legitimacy on the election. Some 8 million people are registered to vote. Nearly 70 percent cast their ballot during the last general election in 2013.Nineteen political parties ran against Hun Sen's ruling CPP, 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.The 2018 election is the country's sixth since 1993 when it emerged from decades of war, including the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime which is blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.The National Election Committee will announce preliminary results at around 6 pm local time. Official results are expected in mid-August.
Polls close in Cambodia election, PM Hun Sen set to extend rule
"It is a significant vote of disapproval of this particular election and an act of defiance of the unlawful coercion on voters to go to vote," Cambodia-based political analyst Lao Mong Hay told Reuters.
"A cunning yet legitimate protest against the powerful."
Government spokesman Phay Siphan said the large number of invalid votes showed an anti-election trend.
"They are anti-election and the Cambodian People's Party," Phay Siphan told Reuters.
During Sunday's vote counting in Phnom Penh, the capital, a Reuters journalist saw numerous ballots that had been ticked all over, while other ballots were left blank.
Nineteen little-known parties contested against the ruling party, but none are particularly critical of it or the government.
Exiled leaders of the CNRP had called for a boycott of the vote, prompting the government to warn that anyone who did not participate would be seen as a "traitor".
"We praise the courage of all voters who came out to mark their strong message by spoiling their ballots as their way of rejecting the sham election and those who stayed home and kept their fingers clean," CNRP vice president Mu Sochua told Reuters, referring to the ink-mark that denotes a vote cast.
Rights groups accused the CPP of coercing citizens to vote for the ruling party, leaving many no choice but to spoil their votes in protest.
The White House said it would consider steps, including wider visa curbs on some members of the Cambodian government, in response to the "flawed elections".