PHNOM PENH -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday officially took line honors in national elections, amid reports of defections from a rival party that could help him rule in his own right.

The National Election Committee (NEC) said preliminary results from the July 27 poll showed Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) had won 2.45 million votes.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) was next with 1.13 million votes while the royalist FUNCINPEC party, which served as a junior partner in the CPP-led outgoing coalition, was third with 1.07 million votes. "The preliminary results show the CPP is leading," NEC spokesman Tep Nitha told reporters. "However, we cannot declare who the winner is until the number of seats are calculated."

Tep Nitha said the allocation of seats in the new Parliament -- to be decided on a proportional representation basis -- would be announced by September 6.

CPP President Chea Sim urged all parties to accept the results, saying they reflected the will of Cambodians from an election that has been widely praised by independent election monitors.

"Cambodia is moving forward on the principle of democracy," he said. "And no other politicians can destroy the result of this election." The CPP has claimed it will score 73 seats in the 123-seat National Assembly, a result that falls short of the two-thirds majority required to rule in its own right.

Hun Sen has been pushing to reestablish his coalition with FUNCINPEC, but a political stalemate has emerged with FUNCINPEC and SRP demanding a tripartite government without Hun Sen as premier. Hun Sen has rejected the proposal, AFP reported.

The alternative for Hun Sen would be to attract defectors from FUNCINPEC or the SRP into the CPP's ranks. It needs 82 seats, or on its calculations a further nine seats, to govern independently.

The English-language newspaper the ***Cambodia Daily*** said five FUNCINPEC cabinet ministers from the former coalition government were prepared to join the CPP to help it establish a new government.

"As I understand it there are five people and those five people are just hungry for the ministers position so they broke away from the party line," the newspaper quoted an unnamed FUNCINPEC official as saying.

It named the five FUNCINPEC defectors as co-interior minister You Hockry, tourism minister Veng Sereyvuth, secretary of state for rural development Ly Thuch, transport minister Khy Taing Lim, and health minister Hong Sun Huot. The report said that Hong Sun Huot had denied he was a defector. "I've never talked with the CPP," he told the paper. "I've never talked to anybody."

FUNCINPEC boss Prince Norodom Ranariddh had boasted during the election campaign that his party would win about 53 seats, but instead they appear set for less than 25 with the SRP picking up about the same number. One senior FUNCINPEC official said there was dissent in the party ranks over Ranariddh's order that FUNCINPEC ministers stop working until a new government is formed.

"We are working toward resolving this problem," the official told AFP.

The first signs of cracks within FUNCINPEC emerged shortly after the vote.

A letter allegedly written by party members calling for the removal of Ranariddh as leader was published by three Khmer-language newspapers and distributed widely across the capital.

FUNCINPEC insisted the letter was a fake and declared "Prince Norodom Ranariddh as the only head of FUNCINPEC" but the newspapers insisted the document was genuine.

Then senior FUNCINPEC figures told the media they would lead a mass resignation from the old government to undermine attempts by Hun Sen to carry on an interim administration until a new regime can be formed by October.

However, this move failed to materialize after Hun Sen threatened to suspend pay and withdraw government perks, including luxury cars, if the officials went ahead with the resignations.