The ruling Cambodian People’s Party has said preliminary election results show it won all 125 seats in the general election on Sunday.
Sok Eysan, a CPP spokesman, told VOA that the initial results announced by the National Election Committee (NEC) suggested none of the 19 other political parties had managed to garner enough votes to win a single seat in the National Assembly.
“We do not have a specific figure, as the NEC has not yet concluded the results and distributed the legal formula, but we only know the number of votes, so we can only estimate the number [of seats],” he said.
However, if the voter figures provided by the NEC are accurate, the CPP would almost certainly hold every seat in parliament.
Such an outright victory for the CPP may not be in its interest, as Prime Minister Hun Sen will seek to maintain the veneer of a multi-party democracy; however, with the growing support of China and rising tensions with the west, it is possible that the Cambodian regime may not require approval from the international community.
Hang Puthea, an NEC spokesman, said on Monday that the body was not yet ready to announce the final election results.
The United States, Australia, the European Union and other world powers criticized the election as not “free and fair" following the dissolution of the main opposition and a crackdown on civil society and independent media.
The U.S. Has also said it is preparing to issue fresh sanctions against the Hun Sen regime.
Meas Nee, an independent political analyst, said he was concerned that the landslide CPP victory and ongoing suppression of Cambodians’ freedoms could lead to damaging sanctions.
“I have said it before, and if the election continues as we have seen so far ... [we] cannot stop the flood, but when the water recedes, we will see a big impact.”
According to the NEC, nearly 7 million voters, or 82.89 percent of the electorate, turned out to vote.
