PHNOM PENH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The voter turnout in Cambodia's seventh general election on Sunday was recorded at 81.48 percent, a National Election Committee (NEC) spokesman said.
Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. local time and were closing at all 23,789 polling stations across the Southeast Asian country, NEC Member and Spokesman Dim Sovannarom said.
"By 3:40 p.m. local time, some 7,912,081 people had voted, or 81.48 percent of the 9,710,655 registered voters," he told Xinhua.
The general situation on the polling day was good, Sovannarom said, adding that vote counting is underway.
Preliminary results are expected on Sunday evening and Monday morning, as the official ones will be released on Aug. 9, according to an NEC timetable.
A total of 18 political parties contested the election, which is held once every five years to elect 125 lawmakers for the National Assembly.
Among the contestants are the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and the Funcinpec Party of Prince Norodom Chakravuth.
In the previous election in 2018, the CPP won all 125 seats in the National Assembly. ■
