<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Cambodia's king on Monday will appoint Hun Manet the country's new leader after his father Hun Sen calls time on nearly four decades of hardline rule.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Days after a landslide victory in July's election, Hun Sen -- one of the world's longest-serving leaders -- announced he was stepping down as prime minister and handing power to his eldest son.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The polls were widely decried as a sham after the opposition challenger Candlelight Party was barred from running over a technicality, with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) winning all but five seats in the 125-member lower house.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, following a request from Hun Sen, King Norodom Sihamoni is set to issue a royal decree making four-star general Hun Manet the prime minister.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, to officially become the country's new leader the 45-year-old and his new cabinet must win a confidence vote in parliament set for August 22.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The incoming government will usher in a crop of young ministers -- with some taking posts vacated by their fathers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While insisting he would not interfere with his son's rule, Hun Sen has promised Cambodians he will continue to dominate the country's politics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Having come to power in 1985, he helped modernise a country devastated by civil war and genocide, although critics say his rule has also been marked by environmental destruction, entrenched graft, and the elimination of nearly all political rivals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States, United Nations, and the European Union condemned last month's polls as neither free nor fair.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hun Sen rejected those allegations and said his handover, a dynastic succession compared by some critics to North Korea, was being done to maintain peace and avoid "bloodshed" should he die in office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also warned that should Hun Manet's life be seriously endangered, he would return as PM.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While groomed for the position for years, the eldest son of Cambodia's iron-fisted ruler remains untested in the political arena, analysts say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And there are few expectations Hun Manet will chart a more liberal path than his father, despite being educated in England and the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A member of the ruling party's powerful permanent committee, he has been the Royal Cambodian Army's commander since 2018.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hun Manet has also met some world leaders including President Xi Jinping of China, Cambodia's main ally and a significant benefactor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After stepping down, Hun Sen will become president of the Senate early next year and acting head of state when the king is overseas. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>