Cambodia’s Hun Sen, Asia’s Longest Serving Leader, Says He'll Step Down and His Son Will Take Over

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) raises a ballot before voting at a polling station at Takhmua in Kandal province, southeast Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on July 23, 2023. Heng Sinith/AP Photo

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday he will step down in August and hand the position to his oldest son, though Asia’s longest-serving leader is expected to continue to wield significant power.

The widely anticipated move comes after the autocratic Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party secured a landslide victory Sunday in elections that Western countries and rights organizations criticized as neither free nor fair, partially because the country’s main opposition was barred from competing.