The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won a sweeping victory, while Funcinpec and the Khmer National United Party received the second and third most votes, according to preliminary election results announced by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Tuesday.
The ruling CPP received 6,398,311 votes, or 77.89% of the 8,214,430 ballots cast. The royalist Funcinpec party earned 716,490 votes or 8.72%, while Khmer National United Party 134,285 votes or 1.63%.
The NEC reported an 84.58% voter turnout among the 9,710,655 registered voters, up from the 83.02% reported voter turnout in the 2018 elections, in which the court-dissolved opposition CNRP did not participate.
In this year’s elections, the NEC reported 7,774,276 valid ballots cast and 440,154 invalid ballots or 5.36% of the total. The NEC did not distinguish between intentionally spoiled ballots due to an opposition campaign linked to the Candlelight Party’s disqualification from the elections, and ballots invalidated for other reasons, such as accidental error.
Ruling CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan told CamboJA on Tuesday he believes the CPP will receive 120 seats of 125 National Assembly seats, while Funcinpec’s spokesperson Nhoeun Raden has previously stated his party estimates they will receive the remaining five seats.
Eysan said that Funcinpec will be involved in governance but may not receive high level government positions or receive roles on any of the National Assembly’s committees.
Currently, there are 10 committees in the National Assembly, ranging from education, human rights and economic policy.
“I believe that Funcinpec does not have the ability to interfere; they would compromise the work,” Eysan said. “If they can compromise, the party that received fewer votes can be involved in government, such as the Secretary of State and Undersecretary of State, to get a salary.”
Funcinpec’s Raden said that Funcinpec will use the votes that it received to bring the issues like corruption and injustice to the parliament’s attention — though he did not elaborate in more detail.
“Regarding other positions in the parliament and government, our party has not discussed yet,” he said. “Even if Funcinpec does not get any position, it does not matter; we still can work for people.”
Funcinpec’s president Prince Norodom Chakravuth has told CamboJA that he does not want the party to be seen in opposition to the ruling CPP and said he hopes to work with future prime minister Hun Manet “to make the country more democratic.”
NEC spokesperson Dim Sovannrom said that NEC will announce the official election result on August 5.
“We have now announced a temporary result, and we will allow relevant parties to complain, and if there is no complaint, the official result will be released on August 5,” he said.
Funcinpec’s spokesperson, Raden, said the party did not plan to file a complaint. Khmer National United Party’s spokesperson, Tib Teav, could not be reached for comment.
Twelve minor parties which responded to requests for comment from CamboJA last week said they had not filed any complaints with the NEC about the election process, even though several said they observed irregularities.
No party besides the ruling CPP observed a majority of polling stations — at least parties did not observe any polling stations, database Kamnotra found — with some parties saying this was because they lacked sufficient resources.
Preliminary NEC Election Results Breakdown:
- Cambodian People’s Party: 6,398,311 votes
- Funcinpec: 716,490 votes
- Khmer National United Party: 134,285
- Cambodian Youth Party: 97,412 votes
- Dharmacracy Party: 84,030 votes
- Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Democracy Party: 52,817 votes
- Khmer Anti-Poverty Party: 40,096 votes
- Khmer United Party: 36,526 votes
- Grassroots Democracy Party: 35,416 votes
- Khmer Economic Development Party: 26,093 votes
- Ekpheap Cheat Khmer Party: 25,261 votes
- Cambodian Nationality Party: 23,197 votes
- Women for Women Party: 22,843 votes
- Khmer Conservative Party: 20,968 votes
- Beehive Social Democratic Party: 20,210 votes
- People Purpose Party: 13,831 votes
- Democracy Power Party: 13,704 votes
- Farmer’s Party: 12,786 votes
