Phnom Penh, Aug 08: Cambodia's National Election Committee (NEC) today declared Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) had won a majority of votes at national elections, following the preliminary vote count. NEC spokesman Tep Nitha said preliminary results showed the CPP had won 2.45 million votes. The opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) was next with 1.13 million votes while the Royalist Funcinpec trailed in third with 1.07 million votes.
"The preliminary results show the CPP is leading," he told reporters. "However, we cannot declare who the winner is until the number of seats are calculated," he added.
He said the amount of seats won by each party in the 123-seat National Assembly at the July 27 poll will be released on September 6. The CPP has claimed it will score a 73-seat majority with the remaining 50 seats to be almost evenly split between the SRP and Funcinpec.
The CPP will still fall short of the two-thirds majority required to rule in its own right, forcing Hun Sen to negotiate a coalition deal with the royalist Funcinpec or the SRP by October. Bureau Report