The opposition CNRP on Wednesday stood by its claim that it won a razor thin majority of the National Assembly’s 123 seats in Sunday’s election, just enough to form the country’s next government if its numbers hold.
CNRP president Sam Rainsy claimed 63 seats for his party on Tuesday night and called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to step down.
The prime minister’s ruling CPP, however, is claiming victory for itself after winning 68 seats. The CNRP’s figures also differ significantly from those of the independent Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), which gave the ruling party 67 seats and the win.
The National Election Committee (NEC) will release official results on August 10.
Mu Sochua, the CNRP’s director-general of public affairs, said Wednesday that her party was standing by its claim that it won 63 seats.
“We have all the results…from all the polling stations,” she said.
Mr. Rainsy on Tuesday said its share of Assembly seats could even go up.
But Ms. Sochua said that now seemed unlikely, as it had counted all the NEC-issued 1104 forms it was using to come up with its figures. She said her party now planned to submit its evidence to an ad hoc committee it hopes to establish to investigate reports of widespread voting irregularities.
Ms. Sochua said her party’s tally differed so widely from Comfrel’s because the election monitor had used numbers only from a sample of polling stations.
Of the 19,009 polling stations across the country, Comfrel monitoring coordinator Kong Ravine said her group took a scientific random sample of 1,470 of them.
She declined to comment on whether she thought the CNRP’s figures were credible.
“If CNRP have a different result from the NEC, we will look at the evidence such as 1104 [forms] of all polling stations,” she said.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, who released the CPP’s figures Sunday evening, did not reply to a request for comment.
NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha would not comment on the opposition’s figures but said all parties were free to claim whatever numbers they wished.
“Whoever announces it, it is their business, but we have our figures,” he said. “We will release preliminary results on August 10 to give time for any political party to protest.”
(Additional reporting by Khy Sovuthy)