Cambodia’s parliament has officially endorsed long-time ruler Hun Sen’s eldest son as the country’s new prime minister, sealing a dynastic handover of power after last month’s one-sided election. 

The country’s National Assembly unanimously approved four-star general Hun Manet, 45, as the country’s new leader in a vote on Tuesday. He was due to be officially sworn in later in the day.

Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won 120 of 125 seats in the lower house in July polls that were widely decried as a sham after the main opposition party was barred from running.

Hun Manet was voted in as a member of parliament for the first time at the election. 

Days after the landslide victory, Hun Sen — one of the world’s longest-serving leaders — announced he was stepping down and handing power to Hun Manet after nearly four decades of iron-fisted rule.

The Cambodian king, who holds a largely symbolic role, convened parliament on Monday, paving the way for Hun Manet’s appointment.

Nepotism in new Cabinet

Experts have cautioned against expecting broad changes in the country, where human rights have been under attack and dissent suppressed.

Even though Hun Manet heads a cabinet made up of many new faces, most are the children of or are otherwise related to those they are replacing.

His cabinet includes Tea Seiha, who will be replacing his father, Tea Banh, as minister of National Defence, and Sar Sokha, who is replacing his father, Sar Kheng, as minister of the Interior.

Both are also to serve as deputy prime ministers.

“There is not a big difference between the generations in political outlook, including in terms of how open or how competitive politics should be,” said Astrid Norén-Nilsson, a Cambodia expert at Sweden’s Lund University.

“The generational transition is designed to keep the power of the political-cum-business elite intact and perpetuate neopatrimonial arrangements.”

While the new government might not make drastic changes in policy, it is likely to set a different tone of political discourse, Dr Norén-Nilsson said.

“This generation wants to relate differently to society at large than their parents’ generation of revolutionary fighters,” she said.

“They want to be associated with positive political messages and to move away from and, if possible, even eliminate the sense of menace and threat of violence over time.”

Hun Sen to retain influence

Hun Sen has progressively tightened his grip on power during his 38 years in office while also ushering in a free-market economy that raised the standards of living of many Cambodians.

At the same time, the gap between the rich and poor greatly widened under his leadership, deforestation spread at an alarming rate, and there was widespread land grabbing by his Cambodian allies and foreign investors.

He has also moved Cambodia politically steadily closer to China, which is currently involved in broadly expanding Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, which Washington worries could give Beijing a strategically important military outpost on the Gulf of Thailand.