Cambodia: Prime Minister Insists He’ll Stay in Power

Hun Sen .Samrang Pring/Reuters

Hopes for a compromise solution to a deadlock over Cambodia’s election results faded Friday as Prime Minister Hun Sen insisted that he could form a new government even if the opposition boycotted Parliament. Mr. Hun Sen said the Constitution allowed Parliament to carry out its tasks with a simple majority of its 123 members present.

Several independent nonpartisan agencies interpret the law to call for a quorum of at least 120 members to be present to open the new assembly session and form a government. Mr. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party said provisional results showed that it won 68 seats to the opposition’s 55. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party said that it had won 63 seats and that voting irregularities had been widespread.

The results from the government-appointed National Election Committee are still provisional. “There will be no deadlock for the new National Assembly and the forming of a new government,” Mr. Hun Sen said Friday. “I will be the prime minister for the fifth five-year term of the government.”