Cambodian PM’s party won majority of provinces in election

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s long-ruling party won a sweeping majority of provinces in a July 28 election, official results showed on Monday, supporting his claim of victory and likely deepening a crisis over the disputed result.

The opposition has rejected preliminary results showing the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won a reduced parliamentary majority, calling for an international inquiry into a ballot it says it won and which it says was tainted by widespread cheating.

The election crisis is 60-year-old Hun Sen’s biggest political challenge in two decades and threatens to destabilise the small, fast-growing Southeast Asian nation that has built strong economic and political ties with China in recent years.

The National Election Committee (NEC) - a state body seen as dominated by the CPP - announced official results on Monday showing the CPP had won a majority of votes in 19 out of Cambodia’s 24 provinces.

Even by the government’s own figures, the July 28 vote was his worst election result since Cambodia returned to full democracy in 1998 after decades of war and turmoil that included the 1975-79 “Killing Fields” rule of the Khmer Rouge.