Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen thanked all voters who joined the 7th National Election today, according to his voice message this evening.
“I would like to thank you all, dear compatriots, for supporting the appeal of His Majesty the King, the National Election Committee (NEC) and the Royal Government, to go to the polls to fulfill our respective duties as the owners of the country and territory and as the real implementers of democracy through elections,” he underlined.
This act really disappointed the extremist group who attempted to destroy Cambodia’s democracy, the Premier added.
According to the preliminary figure from the NEC, he said, the voter turnout rate of this year’s National Election is 84.21 percent, which is higher than that in the Commune/Sangkat Council Election in 2022.
“With the participation of the (opposition) Candlelight Party (CP) in last year’s Commune/Sangkat Council Election, the turnout rate was only 80.32 percent, but now with the CP’s appeal not to go to vote and to destroy the ballots by marking a cross on them, the turnout rate rose to over 84 percent,” he stressed.
This can be concluded that the citizens have participated in the democratic movement in Cambodia, they really want happiness and prosperity under the current peace and stay away from the extremists, he said.
“we are waiting to see how many ballots with the cross mark, because the leaders of the extremist group had announced that those ballots mean support for their party,” Samdech Techo Hun Sen added, asking NEC to divide the normal invalid ballots from those with cross mark.
Samdech Techo Prime Minister once again warned to take legal action against those who incited people not to go to vote or destroy the ballots, and advised them to confess.
In the 6th National Election on July 29, 2018, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party received a total of 4,889,113 votes, or 76 percent, taking all the 125 seats in the National Assembly. The then turnout rate was 83.02 percent of the total 8.38million eligible voters.
Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP)