The final results from the National Election Committee for the June 4 commune elections show the Cambodian People’s Party taking 1,156 communes to the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s 489 communes, ending the more than month-long local election process.
While the NEC is announcing the results province-by-province on state broadcaster TVK this morning, a NEC document released by the station’s outgoing director Kem Gunawadh shows the final tally to be close to preliminary results released by the NEC shortly after the June 4 ballot.
Only a few communes changed hands during the recount process. A Facebook post from NEC member Rong Chhun shows the CPP to have received around half of the ballots cast during the elections, or 50.76 percent to the CNRP’s 43.83 percent.
Both the ruling and opposition parties have attempted to present the results as a victory, with the CPP retaining a significant majority at the commune level and the CNRP making improvements on 2012. The results show the CPP winning more than twice the CNRP’s count, down from its commanding tally of 1,592 of 1,632 communes in the June 2012 commune elections.
The CNRP drastically improved on the 40 communes it won in 2012, when it contested separately as the Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party. The CPP will have 6,503 council seats across the country’s 1,646 communes, with the CNRP taking 5,007 seats.
