With this result, Prime Minister Hun Sen has extended his 33-year term in office with the best election result by the CPP since the first democratic elec-tions were held in 1993. Prime Minister Hun Sen thus remains the world’s long-est-serving Head of government. The election outcome was not entirely sur-prising given that the largest opposi-tion party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), had been dis-solved under dubious accusations by the Supreme Court in 2017. With the de facto abolition of critical media, the CPP’s significant competitive ad-vantage in the election campaign, and political pressure against the opposi-tion and voters, there can be no talk of free and fair elections. This country re-port presents the political situation pri-or to the elections as well as the elec-tion outcome and analyzes the elec-tion’s implications for the future devel-opment of Cambodia.
