PHNOM PENH: Cambodian leader Hun Sen has outlasted the murderous Khmer Rouge, sidelined the monarchy and crushed his opponents in a 33-year rule defined by patronage, political agility and repression and set to be prolonged by yesterday’s election, reports AFP.

The 65-year-old strongman smiled as he held up an inked finger at a polling booth on Sunday morning in an election devoid of his only serious opposition.

Hun Sen is part of a small coterie of world leaders to hold power for three decades, adapting to the shifting political landscape in the poor Southeast Asian country since the Cold War.

His ruling Cambodian People’s Party is set to win big on Sunday after the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017.

In his final campaign speech days before the poll, Hun Sen was in typically bombastic form, bragging about the legal action to “eliminate traitors who attempted to topple the government”. Critics say victory will be the culmination of years of state-sponsored violence, intimidation and deft legal footwork by Hun Sen to head off an opposition which emerged as a serious threat at the last election in 2013.

It will also mark a nadir for Cambodian democracy.

“Few of Hun Sen’s opponents have had the combination of ruthlessness, guile, and political acuity that have carried him through repeated cycles of Cambodian history,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia”.