On 4 June 2017, voters queued at polling stations in Phnom Penh before the 7 a.m. opening of Cambodia's commune-council election. Reporting citing Reuters described the local poll as a major political test after Prime Minister Hun Sen's thirty-two years in power. Updated official figures put turnout at about seven million voters.
What distinguishes this queue is that a local election had become a nationwide measure of a long-entrenched government. Waiting before opening was more than crowd control; it was a way to secure participation in a contest whose result was being watched far beyond each commune.