Making it count: People vote during Cambodia’s general election in Phnom Penh. (Top, left) Hun Manet shows his finger after he casts his vote at a polling station in Phnom Penh, while Hun Sen prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in Kandal province. — Reuters /AFP
Counting of ballots began yesterday in Cambodia’s general election in which long-time Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party is all but assured of a landslide victory, thanks to the effective suppression and intimidation of any real opposition. His critics say the process has made a farce of democracy in the South-East Asian nation.
The European Union, the United States and other Western countries refused to send observers, saying the election lacked the conditions to be considered free and fair. That left international officials from Russia, China and Guinea-Bissau to watch as Hun Sun voted shortly after the polls opened at 7am yesterday in his home district outside of the capital, Phnom Penh.
