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The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the 3rd commune council elections on Sunday, according to preliminary results released by the National Election Commission (NEC) on Monday. The elections were held to elect 11,459 councilors for the country's 1,633 communes. The NEC results showed that the CPP won 8,283 commune councilor seats, the Sam Rainsy Party, the country's main opposition party, gained 2,155 commune councilor seats, the Human Rights Party took 800 seats, Funcinpec Party won 160 seats while Norodom Ranariddh Party achieved only 53 seats. Some 5.87 million Cambodians of about 9.2 million eligible voters cast their ballots at 18,107 polling stations nationwide on Sunday, said the NEC. "Generally, the elections had been conducted smoothly despite rains in some areas," Im Suosdey, the NEC's president, said in a press briefing on Sunday evening to conclude the local elections. The Sunday's elections were joined by ten political parties and were observed by about 15,000 national and international observers from various countries and non-governmental organizations. The commune council election is held every 5 years. In the 2nd commune council elections in 2007, the CPP won 1,592 commune chiefs among the country's 1,633 communes, following by the Sam Rainsy Party with 28 commune chief positions and the royalist Funcinpec Party with 2 communes. The availability of final official result is still up in the air due to the complaints filed by some involved parties.

Preliminary results suggest landslide win for Cambodian PM's party in local polls