Cambodian strongman Hun Sen wins another 'landslide' election. Will succession to his son be just as smooth?
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Montag, Juli 24, 2023
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The meeting saw his eldest son, Hun Manet, 45, unanimously selected to be the future prime minister.
Key Points:
- The meeting saw his eldest son, Hun Manet, 45, unanimously selected to be the future prime minister.
- After years of speculation over the identity of the strongman’s political successor, it was both an unsurprising and uninspiring choice.
- Up against a mix of 17 emasculated, feeble and grovelling opposition parties, Hun Sen’s party quickly boasted it had won in a “landslide”.
Preparing for a sham election
- In May, the National Election Committee barred the leading opposition Candlelight Party from competing in the election because it had failed to provide the necessary documentation.
- This documentation, ironically, had been taken in a police raid years earlier.
- In early June, the National Assembly amended the election law to bar non-voters from ever running for office, as well as penalise anyone who calls for election boycotts.
How do dictators stay in power?
- The second thing Hun Sen did was entrench a harsher form of dictatorship in Cambodia, transforming the country in recent years into a genuine one-party state.
- In July 2015, the government rammed through a bill designed to suppress civil society groups.
- The law used arcane compliance requirements related to funding, reporting, registration and political neutrality to limit their operations.
How has he accomplished this feat over the past 38 years? Based on my research in the field of authoritarian politics, two significant factors stand out. The first thing Hun Sen did was personalise power by following the “playbook” of other strongmen like Paul Biya in Cameroon, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Idi Amin in Uganda. Among his actions across four decades of authoritarianism:
How does one dictator pass the reins to another?
- The process can sometimes encourage infighting among political elites and potentially plunge a country into chaos.
- 2) Security: they have a paramilitary force or formal position at the apex of the security apparatus.
- Having so far satisfied all but the need for immunity, Hun Sen is now well-positioned to pass power onto his son.
- There is nothing to suggest Cambodia’s next prime minister won’t also have a sham election up his sleeve.