It was almost as if he had picked up the scent of imminent power. Prime ministerial hopeful Sam Rainsy gave up on a month of virulent attacks to revert to Mr Reasonable as he voted yesterday.
Gone were racial slurs against the Vietnamese, the claims that ruling co-premier Hun Sen was a murdering mobster and the criticism of a gutless monitoring effort by an international community interested only in stability rather than democracy.
Instead, with rival opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh, he sped to the heartland of Mr Hun Sen's 18-year rule in the Mekong port of Kompong Cham to quietly declare he would accept any election result considered 'credible' by the world.
He also suggested he could work with the other parties, saying a three-way split between Mr Hun Sen, Prince Ranariddh and himself would 'reflect the mood and will of the people'.
'It's a beautiful day for Cambodia,' he said after sleeping in and arriving 30 minutes late at the polling booth. 'This could be a turning point . . . I have hope but no illusions.' Just 24 hours earlier he had warned the day would be a 'step backward' after weeks of pre-election intimidation, harassment and murder of opposition figures.
Equally relaxed, Prince Ranariddh arrived to talk up a storm, claiming he was confident of an 'absolute majority' for his Funcinpec party - the long-time democratic rival of Mr Hun Sen's former communist Cambodian People's Party.