Cambodia's PM Hun Sen leaps into Facebook to woo voters online

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen is taking a belated leap into the digital age in a bid to court young, urban voters as he tries to fend off unprecedented competition from the opposition after three decades in power.

The former Khmer Rouge soldier has started to enthusiastically embrace Facebook for the first time, coming round to the platform after almost losing a 2013 election when the opposition won a surge of support online.

The self-styled “strongman” has until recently denied using Facebook, but when an account bearing his name received its millionth “like” last month, he finally admitted it was his, coinciding with the government’s moves to ramp up its cyber presence.

“He uses his own messages to reach out to people and to answer questions people want to ask him,” said government spokesmen Phay Siphan, when asked why Hun Sen started using Facebook.

Seventy per cent of Cambodia’s 15 million population are under 30 years of age, while nine million of its citizens use the Internet.

Hun Sen’s Facebook, which how has 1.2 million “likes”, carries images and videos of new infrastructure and credits him with Cambodia’s speedy economic development.