A political standoff deepened yesterday when officials announced that Prime Minister Hun Sen's party had won last month's general elections with 47.35 percent of the vote -- short of the two-thirds majority needed to form a government alone.
His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has so far failed to find a coalition partner.
The opposition Sam Rainsy Party finished second with 21.87 percent of the votes in the July 27 poll, and the royalist FUNCINPEC party got 20.75 percent, said the state National Election Committee's general-secretary, Tep Nitha.
Both parties have said they won't form a coalition with the CPP unless Hun Sen resigns -- a demand he has rejected.
CPP president Chea Sim said it would stay in government with "Hun Sen as prime minister to continue running the country."
Under Cambodia's proportional representation system, the votes will be translated into the number of seats that each party will be allocated in the 123-member National Assembly. Those results will be formally declared between Aug. 14 and Sept. 6, Tep Nitha said.
He said the CPP won 2.44 million of the 5.168 million valid votes. The Sam Rainsy Party got 1.13 million votes, the FUNCINPEC got 1.07 million and the Khmer Democratic Party got 95,927 votes. The remaining votes were shared by 19 other parties.
Observers who monitored the vote count have forecast 73 seats for the CPP -- nine short of the two-thirds majority it needed to make FUNCINPEC or Sam Rainsy support unnecessary.
A similar political deadlock after the last elections in 1998 led to months of disturbances and violence in which several people were killed.
By law, a new National Assembly must convene within 60 days of the election, but there is no deadline for a new government to take office.
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