Cambodia's ruling party wins 55 out of 58 seats in Senate election: PM

PHNOM PENH - The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won 55 out of the 58 Senate seats up for grabs in the Sunday's election, the country's Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Monday.

Four political parties, the CPP, the Khmer Will Party, the Nation Power Party and the royalist Funcinpec Party, participated in the Senate election for the fifth legislative term.

National Election Committee (NEC) preliminary results indicated that the CPP received 10,052 votes, the Khmer Will Party earned 1,394 votes, the Nation Power Party gained 234 votes, and the Funcinpec Party got 19 votes.

Hun Manet, who is also the CPP's vice president, said in a text released in his official Telegram channel that based on the NEC results, the CPP won 55 seats and the Khmer Will Party gained three seats, as the Nation Power Party and the Funcinpec Party did not earn any seat.

CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan confirmed on Sunday that former Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, the 71-year-old president of the CPP, will take over as the president of the Senate after the election, allowing him to act as the acting head of state when the king is overseas.

Held every six years, the election for the Senate (the upper house) is by a non-universal suffrage as only members of the National Assembly (the lower house) and commune councilors across the Southeast Asian country are eligible to cast ballots.

The Senate has 62 seats, but the vote was held for 58 seats as two senators will be appointed by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and two others by the National Assembly.

According to the NEC, 11,730, or 99.86 percent, of the 11,747 eligible voters voted in the Sunday's election at 33 polling stations across the country.