CPP leading in early counting in the municipal election

Mr. Tep Nytha (L), speaking at a press conference on the afternoon of 17th May.

Reported by Khmerization

Early counting in Cambodia's first ever municipal election conducted on Saturday 16th May and ended on 17th May shows that the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is leading by a big margin, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.

As many as 270 polling stations opened at 07.00 across the country for more than 11,353 voters /councillors to cast their ballots in the Council Election – the first of its kind in the country.

Voters/councillors will elect 3,235 delegates to 193 local councils, including 373 to 24 provincial and municipal councils. Running for the election campaign were candidates from the Cambodia People’s Party, Sam Rainsy Party, Funcinpec Party and Norodom Ranarith Party. This is an indirect election in which only the commune councillors will cast their votes to elect the municipal councillors.

According to Deum Ampil, early results indicated that the ruling CPP will win by a landslide because a lot of the Sam Rainsy Party's councillors had voted for the CPP's candidates. However, the CPP said that this is only an unofficial result.

SRP officials said that there were some electoral irregularities, but Mr. Yim Sovan, the SRP spokesman, said that the SRP will respect the results of the election because there are about 600 SRP candidates who will be elected and that these 600 SRP councillors will work along side the CPP councillors where they can monitor their activities to reduce corruption, says Deum Ampil.

Mr. Tep Nytha, secretary-general of the National Election Committee, said in a press conference on the afternoon of 17th May that this Cambodia's first ever municipal election had gone smoothly without any incident.

Official results will be announced on the 29th of May.