The National Election Committee (NEC) posted complete preliminary results online on Wednesday evening after receiving missing forms from 344 communes, an official said, with the final tallies from Sunday’s commune elections expected before June 25.
NEC spokesman Hang Puthea said the election body posted results from 1,646 communes across the country and would confirm other commune-level officials—first deputy commune chiefs, second deputy commune chiefs and commune councilors—at a later date.
“We have released all preliminary results on the website this evening, and the seats are due to be announced on June 25,” Mr. Puthea said.
The NEC has declined to provide aggregated vote totals until its officials resolve outstanding complaints filed by the political parties. Unofficial totals have previously been posted by the government-aligned Fresh News and the two main political parties.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the NEC also said it had not released commune seat results to any media outlets in the country prior to posting them online, despite some local media reports to the contrary.
“The NEC would like to clarify that following the commune elections, the NEC broadcasted preliminary results of the elections on TVK, national radio and the NEC website,” the statement said.
Unofficial totals provided by CPP spokesman Sok Eysan on Tuesday showed the CPP winning 1,158 communes to 487 for the CNRP.
Mr. Puthea said on Wednesday about 1 million unused reserve ballots had been sealed and were being sent back to Phnom Penh to be counted in case of complaints of irregularities.
