Cambodia's ruling party victorious in 2008 national election

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) will comfortably win the July 27, 2008 national election, according to the results of survey conducted by an independent political observer, the Institute for Civic Education (ICE), local media said on Thursday.

The preliminary findings of ICE found that based on previous election results, the CPP may obtain 61 parliamentary seats, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) 42, with other parties sharing the remaining 20, reported Cambodian-language newspaper the Sralanh Khmer.

However, SRP president Sam Rainsy said the prediction is not necessarily 100 percent accurate.

"For CPP, we have observed that in past commune elections, it has received increasing votes, but in national elections, it received less," said Sam Rainsy, arguing that his party will win in the upcoming election as more and more voters are supporting his party.

Although predicting that CPP may win the forthcoming election, the survey doesn't rule out the decisive factor of the 2.5 million voters absent in the 2007 commune election, reported another Cambodian-language newspaper the Koh Santepheap.

There will surely be great change if they go to vote in the 2008 election, the paper added.

In the 2007 commune election on April 1, CPP won most posts in the communes, while SRP trailed CPP with its quality performance.

CPP has co-governed the kingdom with the Funcinpec Party for more than a decade. SRP has emerged as the largest opposition party in recent years.