Cambodia's royalist party calls for poll probe after wining no seat

Cambodia's royalist Funcinpec Party on Tuesday called for the establishment of an independent committee to investigate irregularities in Sunday's general election, the party said in a statement. "Observing serious irregularities in the election process on Sunday, the Funcinpec Party calls for the establishment of an independent committee in order to monitor those noticeable irregularities," the statement said. The party is led by Princess Norodom Arun Rasmey, the youngest daughter of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. The party did not get even a single seat in Sunday's election, according to the initial election results. In the last election in 2008, the party earned two seats. The royalist party's call for probe came a day after the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) rejected Sunday's election results, claiming serious irregularities. Sam Rainsy, CNRP's president, said Monday that the party did not accept the election results because there were too many irregularities. He called for the establishment of a joint committee comprising the CPP, the CNRP, the National Election Committee, the United Nations, and local and international NGOs to investigate the irregularities. He said that about 1.2 million voters were unable to vote because their names were not on the voter lists. Also, there were about 1 million ghost names on the voter lists and about 200,000 duplicate names. Ouch Borith, secretary of state for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that the opposition party should present " concrete evidence" to substantiate its irregularity allegations. He said the opposition party should recognize the truth as tens of thousands of national observers and hundreds of foreign monitors have accepted that the election was conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner. The initial election results showed that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen gained the victory with 68 parliamentary seats and the CNRP got the remaining 55 seats in Sunday's poll, said Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, spokesman for the government and the CPP. Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, will stretch his power for another five years through the victory.