Polls for Cambodia's seventh general election closed at 3 p.m. Sunday with over 80 percent of over 9.7 million registered voters casting their ballots.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. at all 23,789 polling stations across the Southeast Asian country. The vote counting is underway and initial results are expected on Sunday evening and Monday morning, and the official ones will be released on August 9, according to a timetable issued by the National Election Committee (NEC).

According to NEC spokesman Dim Sovannarom, some 7,912,081 people, or 81.48 percent of the 9,710,655 registered voters, had voted by 3:40 p.m..

A total of 18 political parties contested the election, which is held once every five years to elect 125 lawmakers for the National Assembly.

It's expected that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will continue to win a sweeping victory as the other 17 parties running are obscure and none have the clout or resources to mount a challenge to the ruling party, which won all 125 assembly seats in the 2018 election.

The only serious challenge to the CPP had come from the Candlelight Party (CP). But they were disqualified on a technicality over a registration document in May. 

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said the CPP will be unbeatable, given that the party has strong leadership and significant resources.

"Under the CPP-led government, Cambodia's economy had grown at an average annual rate of 7.7 percent between 1998 and 2019, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world," Matthews said.

He added that the kingdom's poverty rate had declined to 16.6 percent in 2022 from nearly 40 percent in 2009. "I strongly believe that the CPP will emerge again victorious undoubtedly."

Thong Mengdavid, a research fellow at Phnom Penh-based independent think tank Asian Vision Institute (AVI), said the CPP will continue to be a powerful political party in Cambodia.

"Hun Sen's prudent, practical, and visionary leadership has allowed the CPP to establish a strong basis for generational leadership, and the party is now home to a number of competent, intelligent and far-sighted young leaders," said Mengdavid.

Hun Sen, 70, has been the prime minister of Cambodia since 1985. Mengdavid said under Hun Sen's leadership, the CPP delivered complete peace and national reconciliation to Cambodia in 1998.

Path Pisethdara, a 41-year-old trader, hoped all political parties would accept the results to ensure the country's peace, political stability, public order and further development in the post-election era.

"I had already voted this moment," she told Xinhua. "I hope all political parties will respect voters' wills."

(With input from Xinhua)