The Cambodian National Election Committee (NEC) declared Tuesday the ruling
Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has secured 90 seats, or over two thirds of the
123 seats, at top legislative body in the general election, thus enabling CPP
to have stronger management of the country.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) won 26 seats and the
Human Rights Party (HRP) received three seats, and the Funcinpec Party and the
Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) got two seats each, according to official results
declared by NEC on Tuesday.
The first meeting of Cambodia's new parliament is scheduled for Sept. 24,
ahead of forming the new government.
"The CPP's dominance will secure peace and stability in Cambodia, which is
very precious for the country and its people," said local economic analyst
David Phat, who was born here and endured the war-torn years of Cambodia.
Phat said that primarily, continued governance by CPP can guarantee policy
sustainability in its upcoming term, adding that the party in its current term
has pursed political stability for the sake of economic development, and
regional coordination for the sake of international cooperation.
"Political stability can lead to economic prosperity," he told Xinhua.
Under the CPP governance, the Cambodian economy is expected to remain
nearly double-digit growth rate and the per capita GDP will probably top 1,000
U.S. dollars by 2014, he added.
Pen Samitthy, editor-in-chief of the country's largest Khmer-language daily
newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea, agreed that the political and economic
situation will be further improved as CPP establishes the new government right
after the general election.
"CPP will enjoy a larger space and better conditions, so it can lead the
government more efficiently," he told Xinhua.
According to the Constitution, the party winning majority of the seats at
the National Assembly will establish the government. Law can be passed with
support from 50 percent plus one seat at the National Assembly.
The focus will be our economy after the political situation is settled, and
especially, the foreign investment will increase, said Pen Samitthy.
"Everything will be better," he added.
Hu Jinlin, a Chinese merchant and major electric appliances dealer in Phnom
Penh, echoed the above prediction, saying that national policy sustainability
will stay, as CPP grips bigger power and Hun Sen himself can manipulate more
development issues.
"The results are a good message for us. They will stabilize and promote the
middle- and long-term investment in Cambodia. We see a clear prospect and know
that the situation won't change much. Especially, more Chinese people will come
to find their opportunities because the two countries have shared decades of
friendly cooperation and China is Cambodia's major donor and investor," he told
Xinhua.
Suy Sok Khun, senior CPP cadre and veteran reporter at Chinese-language
newspaper the Commercial News, told Xinhua that the strong economic performance
under the CPP governance in the past few years has boosted its electoral
results.
"Hun Sen and senior CPP leaders used to like citing positive economic
figures and development of infrastructure as the major achievements of the
government. Most voters accepted this and deem CPP is capable," he said.
Official records showed that Cambodian had 11 percent of economic growth on
average in the past three years, the highest among Southeast Asian countries;
the per capita GDP rose from 448 U.S. dollars in 2005 to 594 U.S. dollars in
2007; and the foreign reserves from 890 million U.S. dollars in 2005 to 1.1
billion U.S. dollars in 2007.
Meanwhile, major national roads, bridges and power projects have also been
constructed countrywide, which improved the kingdom's traffic and power network
to an unprecedented level.
In addition, said Suy, there were also a big number of inertia voters, who
thought that those who did well in the past should be encouraged to stay on
their posts in the future.
"One more message that we can feel from the results is that CPP becomes
more consolidated than ever before," he added.
However, a source close to the Council of Ministers said on condition of
anonymity that any coin has two sides and the landslide victory may also push
the giant party to turn a blind eye to its internal problems and govern the
kingdom in a pampered way.
Alleged corruption and land grabbing have haunted the CPP government and
officials for a long time and drained some voters' confidence and ballots to
the major opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), which in effect surpassed
Funcinpec during the Commune Councils Election in April 2007 to become the
second largest party of the country, said the source.
"If part of SRP members hadn't changed their flag to found the Human Rights
Party (HRP) right before the general election, SRP might have been closer to
CPP now," he said.
What's more, this overall victory in the election may bear out the
assessment of some CPP members that occasional corruption and land grabbing are
not as destructive as NGOs and opposition parties thought, and those with
critic rhetoric are not worth fearing, he said.
"This frame of mind will inevitably fuel their future wrongdoings and even
arrogance in its management of the country," he added.
CPP was established in 1951 and has governed the kingdom since 1993. It now
has around 5 million members, over one third of Cambodia's total population.
For the general election held on July 27, 11 political parties and
8,125,529 voters were registered, while 15,255 polling stations were set up
nationwide and 17,000 local and international observers watched the process
going.
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