Cambodia PM Facebook hacked to ‘give away parliament seats’

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PHNOM PENH, Aug 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Hackers targeted the official
Facebook page of Cambodia’s premier Hun Sen on Friday and falsely claimed he
would cede several parliamentary seats, an official said, after the strongman
swept last month’s election virtually uncontested.

The long-serving leader’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is
expected to take all 125 spots in parliament when official results are
announced next week, cementing Cambodia’s status as a one-party state.

But on Friday, hackers broke into Hun Sen’s official Facebook page and
said the CPP would give away four seats to other parties, a ruling party
spokesman confirmed to AFP.

The perplexing message was up for about an hour and got some 3,300 “likes”
before it was removed.

“The news was fake,” Sok Eysan told AFP, confirming there are no plans to
share seats with any other parties.

He said Hun Sen’s account was likely hacked by “opposition groups or
traitors or outlawed rebels.”

The post claimed the seats would go to Funcinpec Party and the League for
Democracy Party, both small political parties in Cambodia that took a slim
margin of votes last month.

The controversial election was held without the main opposition Cambodia
National Rescue Party (CNRP) on the ballot after it was dissolved by a
Cambodian court last year and one of its leaders Kem Sokha jailed and accused
of treason.

The CNRP won 44 percent of the vote in the last elections, the most
credible challenge to Hun Sen’s rule since he came to power 33 years ago.

The 66-year-old leader eagerly embraced social media in the run-up to the
election in a bid to win support from the youth in Cambodia, where two-thirds
of the population of 16 million people are under 30.

His Facebook page has 10 million likes, but he has come under fire for
allegedly buying support from so-called “click farms”, which he denies.

His elections campaign also coincided with the silencing of critics in the
media and civil society, and his overwhelming election majority drew
criticism from the United States and the European Union.

Voter turnout was more than 80 percent, though more than 600,000 of
ballots were spoiled and considered inadmissible, sparking concerns of voter
intimidation.