Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose party won nearly half the votes in Cambodia's general elections, yesterday asked a royalist party to join him in a coalition or face political "suicide."
According to preliminary results released by the government's National Election Committee, the ruling Cambodian People's Party has won 47.28 percent of the votes in Sunday's election.
The committee said on its Web site that the opposition Sam Rainsy Party came in second with 21.89 percent votes and the royalist Funcinpec party got 20.75 percent votes. The rest of the votes went to smaller parties or were declared invalid.
But the votes are not enough to allow the CPP to form a government on its own. The Funcinpec, CPP's coalition partner in the outgoing government, has said it will partner the CPP only if Hun Sen steps down as prime minister. The Sam Rainsy party also has the same condition.
If Funcinpec "becomes an opposition party, I can say that would be suicide," Hun Sen told reporters.
"They will become an opposition party that will be weaker than the current opposition [Sam Rainsy] party," he said. "So if they try to stay as a partner, the outcome won't be too mournful."
The NEC said its results are preliminary as discrepancies have to be investigated and disputes resolved. Also, under the proportional representation system followed by Cambodia, the committee will have to calculate how many seats each party will be allotted in the 123-member National Assembly based on the percentage of votes won in each of the 24 constituencies.
The final official results will be announced Aug. 8.
Hun Sen said Wednesday he expects the CPP to control up to 73 seats, nine short of the 82 it needs for a two-thirds majority to govern on its own.
A Sam Rainsy Party statement said yesterday it expects to win 28 seats and the CPP to get 70 seats. It said the Funcinpec would get 25 seats.
On Wednesday, Hun Sen rejected the two parties' demand that he step down, saying he will stay in office until a new government is formed, which under the Constitution must be within 60 days of elections.
This has threatened to create a political deadlock of the kind that occurred in 1998 when parties bargained for four months while the capital was rocked by violent demonstrations.
A delegation of EU poll monitors -- the largest group of foreign observers -- said Wednesday the elections were generally "the freest and the most democratic" ever in the country.
Other independent observers also said the elections were freer than previous ones, but still below international standards.
RSS