Hun Sen rivals reject Cambodia election win

28 Jul 2008
Xinhua Newsfeed

PHNOM PENH (Thomson Financial) - Cambodia's main opposition parties Monday rejected Prime Minister Hun Sen's sweeping victory in weekend elections, saying irregularities in the voter rolls prevented many people from casting ballots. Hun Sen's ruling party claims to have won 90 of the 123 seats in parliament. Election authorities have yet to confirm his victory but say that his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has won nearly 60 percent of the ballots counted so far. Four smaller parties who divided the remaining seats refused to accept the result, and have demanded a re-run of the election. "We have decided to join forces to struggle with the Cambodian people to demand a re-run of the election in Cambodia," said main opposition leader Sam Rainsy, whose party was running second with about 23 percent. "We call on the international community not to recognise the results because there were a lot of irregularities," longtime government critic Kem Sokha, leader of the upstart Human Rights Party, told reporters. The royalist Funcinpec and Norodom Ranariddh Party also signed a statement accusing the government of deleting voters' names from the rolls. "The main illegal and fraudulent practises are related to the deletion of countless voters' names and an artificial increase in the CPP votes," the statement said. Kem Sokha said the four parties would consider forming a coalition party to challenge the CPP. Election observers have said the problem of missing names on voter rolls was real, but they have cast doubt on whether the problem is as widespread as the opposition claims. Hun Sen had been widely tipped to win due to a booming economy that has helped improve the quality of life in one of the world's poorest nations, and due to nationalist sentiment sparked by a border feud with Thailand. He was so confident of victory that his government on Monday began a new round of border talks with Thailand, even before his re-election has been confirmed.