ID :
14022
Sun, 07/27/2008 - 22:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/14022
The shortlink copeid
Cambodia ruling party says on course to win general election
PHNOM PENH, July 27 Kyodo - Cambodians voted Sunday in a general election seen largely as a two-way race between the ruling Cambodian People's Party and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, after which a CPP official said his party is on course to secure a simple majority in parliament that would enable it to rule by itself for the first time since 1993.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, a senior CPP member, told reporters in the early evening that post-poll indications are that the CPP will capture more than 80 seats in 123-member National Assembly, with two seats going to two minor parties, one each, and the remainder going to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
Cambodia's eligible voters, numbering 8.1 million, cast their votes between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. at 15,255 polling stations in 24 provinces and cities in the country of 14 million people.
The National Election Committee, which manages and monitors the election, is scheduled to announce unofficial preliminary results on Monday.
Khieu Kaharith said that of the nine other parties participating in the election besides the CPP and the SRP, only two parties -- the Norodom Ranriddh Party and the Human Rights Party -- are on course to capture any seats -- one each.
He said the once-powerful FUNCINPEC party with which the CPP had formed coalition governments after the last three elections is not expected to secure any seats in this election.
CPP sources said exit polls show that in Kompong Cham, the country's most populous province with 18 seats in the assembly, the CPP will capture 10 of them, the SRP six and the two minor parties one each, while in the capital Phnom Penh, which has 12 seats, the CPP will get seven and the SRP five.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, is expected to remain as prime minister, having shown no inclination to give up power any time soon.
The CPP was forced to share power with FUNCINPEC after the 1993, 1998 and 2003 elections as it failed to capture a two-thirds majority.
But it is expected to rule alone after this election, since the National Assembly passed a constitutional amendment in 2006 allowing a party to form a government and pass bills with a simple majority.
During the election campaign period, the CPP had played up its achievements in defeating the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and in providing the people with infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals and schools.
The opposition parties, for their part, accused the ruling party of corruption, land grapping and failing to curb inflation, while blaming it for widespread poverty, the country's culture of impunity and failure to protect its territorial integrity.
Some 17,000 national and international observers, including those from the West and from Asian nations such as Japan, deployed around the country to observe the voting process.
In the 1993 U.N.-administered election, the CPP lost to FUNCINPEC but forced itself into an uneasy power-sharing coalition with the royalist party on equal terms.
The 1998 election was narrowly won by the CPP in the wake of Hun Sen's 1997 coup against FUNCINPEC, while in the 2003 election, the CPP won 73 seats, FUNCINPEC 26 and the Sam Rainsy Party 24.
FUNCINPEC has since become weak, with its self-exiled former leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh having split away and formed his own party. In local elections held in April 2007, the CPP captured 1,591 of the 1,621 commune governments, the Sam Rainsy Party won in 28 communes while FUNCINPEC won in only two localities.
Sunday's general election was held amid a military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand involving thousands of troops from both sides facing off along a disputed portion of their long border.
The foreign ministers of the two countries are scheduled to hold talks on the dispute Monday in Cambodia's northern town of Siem Reap.
Talks last Monday between Thai Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsang Niempradit and Cambodia's Defense Minister Tea Banh in the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet ended with only vague pledges to refrain from violence and avert armed confrontations.
Phnom Penh then sought mediation from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which had proposed to set up a peace mechanism to resolve the conflict between its two members.
But Thailand torpedoed that idea on grounds the two countries should try to resolve their dispute bilaterally before seeking the help from outsiders.
That led Thailand to ask the U.N. Security Council to convene an urgent meeting on the matter, on grounds that there exists an ''imminent state of war'' between the two countries.
The council was expected to hold such a meeting in the coming week until Cambodia and Thailand worked out a deal last Friday under which Cambodia will temporarily suspend its action at the United Nations pending the result of Monday's scheduled bilateral talks.
The disputed area is adjacent to Cambodia's ancient Preah Vihear temple, which was earlier this month inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
Thailand had occupied the area from 1949 when Cambodia was a French protectorate, but Cambodia won possession of the temple through an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962.
Although Thailand has bowed to the ICJ ruling insofar as the temple is concerned, Bangkok still claims that a 4.6-square-meter area adjacent to the temple is Thai territory.
Thailand Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has played down the dispute with Cambodia, suggesting it involves pre-election posturing on the part of Hun Sen and predicting that tensions would ease after Sunday's election.
''After the elections, they will soften their stance and talks will be easier,'' Samak told reporters Wednesday. ''Everything has been done for the July 27 poll...and I need to keep quiet so as not to discredit Prime Minister Hun Sen.''
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, a senior CPP member, told reporters in the early evening that post-poll indications are that the CPP will capture more than 80 seats in 123-member National Assembly, with two seats going to two minor parties, one each, and the remainder going to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
Cambodia's eligible voters, numbering 8.1 million, cast their votes between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. at 15,255 polling stations in 24 provinces and cities in the country of 14 million people.
The National Election Committee, which manages and monitors the election, is scheduled to announce unofficial preliminary results on Monday.
Khieu Kaharith said that of the nine other parties participating in the election besides the CPP and the SRP, only two parties -- the Norodom Ranriddh Party and the Human Rights Party -- are on course to capture any seats -- one each.
He said the once-powerful FUNCINPEC party with which the CPP had formed coalition governments after the last three elections is not expected to secure any seats in this election.
CPP sources said exit polls show that in Kompong Cham, the country's most populous province with 18 seats in the assembly, the CPP will capture 10 of them, the SRP six and the two minor parties one each, while in the capital Phnom Penh, which has 12 seats, the CPP will get seven and the SRP five.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, is expected to remain as prime minister, having shown no inclination to give up power any time soon.
The CPP was forced to share power with FUNCINPEC after the 1993, 1998 and 2003 elections as it failed to capture a two-thirds majority.
But it is expected to rule alone after this election, since the National Assembly passed a constitutional amendment in 2006 allowing a party to form a government and pass bills with a simple majority.
During the election campaign period, the CPP had played up its achievements in defeating the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and in providing the people with infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals and schools.
The opposition parties, for their part, accused the ruling party of corruption, land grapping and failing to curb inflation, while blaming it for widespread poverty, the country's culture of impunity and failure to protect its territorial integrity.
Some 17,000 national and international observers, including those from the West and from Asian nations such as Japan, deployed around the country to observe the voting process.
In the 1993 U.N.-administered election, the CPP lost to FUNCINPEC but forced itself into an uneasy power-sharing coalition with the royalist party on equal terms.
The 1998 election was narrowly won by the CPP in the wake of Hun Sen's 1997 coup against FUNCINPEC, while in the 2003 election, the CPP won 73 seats, FUNCINPEC 26 and the Sam Rainsy Party 24.
FUNCINPEC has since become weak, with its self-exiled former leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh having split away and formed his own party. In local elections held in April 2007, the CPP captured 1,591 of the 1,621 commune governments, the Sam Rainsy Party won in 28 communes while FUNCINPEC won in only two localities.
Sunday's general election was held amid a military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand involving thousands of troops from both sides facing off along a disputed portion of their long border.
The foreign ministers of the two countries are scheduled to hold talks on the dispute Monday in Cambodia's northern town of Siem Reap.
Talks last Monday between Thai Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsang Niempradit and Cambodia's Defense Minister Tea Banh in the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet ended with only vague pledges to refrain from violence and avert armed confrontations.
Phnom Penh then sought mediation from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which had proposed to set up a peace mechanism to resolve the conflict between its two members.
But Thailand torpedoed that idea on grounds the two countries should try to resolve their dispute bilaterally before seeking the help from outsiders.
That led Thailand to ask the U.N. Security Council to convene an urgent meeting on the matter, on grounds that there exists an ''imminent state of war'' between the two countries.
The council was expected to hold such a meeting in the coming week until Cambodia and Thailand worked out a deal last Friday under which Cambodia will temporarily suspend its action at the United Nations pending the result of Monday's scheduled bilateral talks.
The disputed area is adjacent to Cambodia's ancient Preah Vihear temple, which was earlier this month inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
Thailand had occupied the area from 1949 when Cambodia was a French protectorate, but Cambodia won possession of the temple through an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962.
Although Thailand has bowed to the ICJ ruling insofar as the temple is concerned, Bangkok still claims that a 4.6-square-meter area adjacent to the temple is Thai territory.
Thailand Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has played down the dispute with Cambodia, suggesting it involves pre-election posturing on the part of Hun Sen and predicting that tensions would ease after Sunday's election.
''After the elections, they will soften their stance and talks will be easier,'' Samak told reporters Wednesday. ''Everything has been done for the July 27 poll...and I need to keep quiet so as not to discredit Prime Minister Hun Sen.''
