Cambodia’s ruling party denies rumors of PM Hun Sen’s flee after election

   PHNOM PENH, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), which won a slim majority in the Sunday’s election, denied the rumors that longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen has traveled abroad and resigned from the premiership.

   Recently, there are rumors spreading that Prime Minister Hun Sen, CPP’s vice-president, has left for abroad and resigned from the premiership.

   “This is a psychological war that the group of unscrupulous people always fabricates in order to poison social atmosphere,” said a CPP’s statement released late Monday.  

   “The CPP would like to confirm that Hun Sen is in Cambodia and fulfills his duty as the Prime Minister of Cambodia as usual,” it said.

   The statement said that the CPP won “absolute majority seats” in the Sunday’s poll so that the party could establish a new government in accordance with the constitution and Hun Sen would continue to serve as the Prime Minister in the fifth term government.

   Khieu Kanharith, spokesman for the government and the CPP, told Xinhua on Sunday that the initial results showed that the CPP gained 68 parliamentary seats and the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) got the remaining 55 seats in the Sunday’s poll.

   However, the CNRP of recently-returned leader Sam Rainsy rejected the election results, claiming “serious irregularities”.

   “The CNRP don’t accept the election results as indicated by the National Election Committee or by some political parties because there are too many irregularities, and the results do not reflect the will of people,” Sam Rainsy told a press conference on Monday. “The party calls for the establishment of a joint committee in order to investigate the irregularities such as vote counting and duplicated names of voters.”

   The official results from the National Election Committee are still unavailable by far.

   Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, will extend his power for another five years through the Sunday’s victory.

   According to the constitution, the first session of the new National Assembly will be convened no later than 60 days after the election.