Cambodian poll 'rife with fraud'

Cambodia's ruling party was claiming a convincing victory in the general election yesterday. But the two main opposition parties challenged the result, alleging massive electoral fraud.

Local and international monitoring groups have reported their findings, the majority of them declaring numerous irregularities by the Cambodian People's party but saying it was premature to judge whether it had significantly altered the result.

With about 44% of the returns declared, the CPP had 50% of the valid votes, the Sam Rainsy party 21% and Funcinpec 20 %. None of the other 20 parties had even 2%. If this trend continues the CPP should win about 68 of the 123 seats in the national assembly, just short of the two-thirds required by the constitution to govern unaided, with the remainder split between Sam Rainsy and Funcinpec.

The prime minister, Hun Sen, has yet to declare victory, but state television has announced that the CPP believes it will win 74 seats, Funcinpec 25, and Sam Rainsy 24. The two opposition parties said the declaration was a blatant at tempt to influence the ballot organisers. They said they they would "strongly and firmly reject the results" if they mirrored the CPP predictions. They alleged that 20% of the voters had been prevented from casting ballots.

CPP leaders seemed unfazed by the opposition tactics, which could plunge the impoverished kingdom into political deadlock and threaten social unrest.