Twenty-five out of the 123 lawmakers elected during the July 28 national election are female, the official election results have shown. Sunday.

The figures indicated that the number of women-lawmakers in the upcoming fifth legislature of the National Assembly is lower than that of the previous mandate of 27 female lawmakers.

The National Election Committee released the final election results on Sunday, confirming that the Cambodian People's Party ( CPP) of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen won the victory with 68 seats and the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) of long- time opposition leader Sam Rainsy took the remaining 55 seats.

Of the 68 seats won by the CPP, 18 seats go to women, and of the 55 seats earned by the CNRP, only seven go to women.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) on Tuesday expressed its concern over the slight drop of women-lawmakers in the forthcoming parliament.

"It is disheartening that instead of seeing an increase in women's representation, we will be seeing a decrease in the number of women parliamentarians with this new National Assembly,"Chor Chanthyda, coordinator of the Project to Promote Women's Political Representation at the CCHR, said in a statement.



"More than anything, this demonstrates the urgency with which the Cambodian government should begin undertaking concrete action-- such as implementing gender quotas--to ensure that the percentage of women at all levels of government substantially increases in the near future," she said.

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni would convene the first National Assembly session on Sept. 23.

However, the opposition CNRP announced that it would boycott the first parliamentary session if there was no a proper solution to the alleged election irregularities.

It set Sept. 15, 16, and 17 for a massive non-violent protest at the capital's Freedom Park against the election results.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that his party has enough lawmakers to override any opposition parliamentary boycott and form a new government.

He said, according to the constitution, a new government would be formed by a 50 percent plus one majority, or 63 lawmakers, in the new parliament.

Hun Sen, 61, who has been in power for 28 years, will stretch his power for further five years through the victory.