PHNOM PENH – The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won 120 parliamentary seats as the royalist Funcinpec Party gained the remaining five seats in Sunday’s general election, party spokesmen said today.
A total of 18 political parties contested in the election, which is held once every five years to elect MPs for the 125-seat National Assembly.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said today that according to the CPP’s calculations based on the National Election Committee’s (NEC) preliminary results, the CPP won 120 seats and the Funcinpec Party of Prince Norodom Chakravuth gained the remaining five seats.
“The CPP received 80% of the ballots from 8.21 million voters, winning 120 seats, or 96% of the 125 seats in the National Assembly,” he told Xinhua.
“This is another great success for the CPP, and it truly reflected people’s confidence in the party’s leadership,” Eysan said. “We will do our best to continue to serve the people.”
Hun Manet, the future prime ministerial candidate for the CPP, said the people had clearly expressed their will through the polls, with a very high turnout rate of more than 84%.
“An overwhelming number has expressed support for the Cambodian People’s Party,” he said in a message released on his official Telegram channel.
Manet, 45, who is also a member of the CPP’s standing committee, thanked voters for supporting the CPP, vowing to better serve them in the future.
Funcinpec Party spokesman Nhoeun Raden told Xinhua today that the NEC’s preliminary results showed that the Funcinpec Party gained five seats, or 4% in the National Assembly.
He said the party won one seat each in the capital Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kandal, Prey Veng, Kampong Thom and Kampong Cham.
According to the NEC, about 8.21 million people, or 84.58% of 9.71 million eligible voters, cast their ballots in the general election.
Sunday’s parliamentary polls was the seventh of its kind in the Southeast Asian country since 1993. In the previous one held in 2018, the CPP won all 125 seats in the National Assembly.
The CPP has ruled Cambodia since 1979, with Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, also the president of the party, being the prime minister since 1985. Hun Sen has said that the National Assembly will convene for the first time on August 28, and the new five-year-term government will be sworn in on August 29.
Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the Beltei International University in Phnom Penh, said the CPP has a strong leadership, clear vision and development strategy, and human and financial resources.
Matthews said that under the CPP-led government, Cambodia’s economy had grown at an average annual rate of 7.7% between 1998 and 2019, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. – Bernama, July 25, 2023
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