Cambodia's ruling party declares landslide victory in local polls

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia's ruling party Monday declared a landslide victory in the country's local polls as it continued to secure its grip on power ahead of national elections next year.

The Cambodian People's Party (CPP) said it had won 1,592 of the 1,621 commune councils -- small administrative bodies that govern rural villages or city neighbourhoods -- contested in Sunday's vote.

"Absolutely, the Cambodian People's Party won the elections," said CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith, who is also the minister of information.

Election monitors had said going into the polls that a CPP victory was expected, but that opposition parties could also make gains.

Cambodia's main opposition leader Sam Rainsy told AFP Monday that his party had doubled the number of commune councils it had led previously, winning at least 27 top council seats.

The gains insured a greater share of power after the 2008 national elections, he said.

"It means our voices in the 2008 election will double," Sam Rainsy told reporters.

"Now only CPP and Sam Rainsy Party need to work together ... in the interests of the people. We are not enemies," he added.

The royalist Funcinpec party, the CPP's coalition government partner, took only two communes, according to a tally compiled by the CPP.

The party of ousted royalist leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh won none, CPP figures showed.

Official results from the National Election Committee (NEC) are expected to be released April 24. NEC officials said Sunday's vote was largely free of the violence that had plagued previous polls in Cambodia.

Prior to the country's first commune council elections in 2002, local officials were appointed by the government and had remained largely unchanged since the early 1980s.