Cambodia's ruling party sweeps 55 out of 58 seats in Senate election according to official results

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won 55 out of the 58 Senate seats in an election on Feb. 25, according to official results released by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Tuesday.

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

The official results showed that the CPP received 55 seats and the Khmer Will Party got three seats, as the Nation Power Party and the Funcinpec Party did not earn any seat.

CPP's spokesperson Sok Eysan said the results demonstrated that the CPP remained strong and unbeatable.

"This is another great success for the CPP after we won a landslide victory in the general election in July 2023," he told Xinhua.

Eysan confirmed 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, or the upper house, was by a non-universal suffrage as only members of the National Assembly, or the lower house, and commune councilors across the Southeast Asian country were 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.

On Friday, the National Assembly nominated two CPP party members, Eysan and Heng Halim, an advisor to Hun Sen, as the senators. - Xinhua