Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party claimed an overwhelming victory in Cambodia’s national election on Sunday, positioning the autocratic leader for another five-year term in office after a vote human rights groups dismissed as a sham. 

After a push by the regime to neuter the biggest opposition party, mute critical media, and hand out cash to voters, the long-serving Cambodian leader’s CPP easily beat the 19 small parties that ran against it. Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the ruling party, said on Sunday evening that it was on course to win about 100 of 125 parliamentary seats.

Earlier, Cambodia’s National Election Committee said that turnout for the election — the most closely watched metric in a vote whose outcome was never in doubt — was 82 per cent, with 6.9m out of the south-east Asian kingdom’s 8.4m registered voters going to the polls.