Cambodia releases final count in election

Phnom Penh – Cambodia released the final vote count from last month’s general election on Saturday, showing the full extent to which the country’s two main parties dominated the polls.

Of just over 6 million votes, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) took almost 3.5 million, and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) 1.3 million, according to National Election Committee figures.

The remaining nine parties split the rest. The results were posted as temporary because parties now have 72 hours to lodge final complaints against the tally.

However, lawmakers from SRP plus the Norodom Ranariddh Party and the Human Rights Party, which together hold about 31 seats of 123, held a press conference Friday to say they will boycott the swearing in of new parliamentarians on August 24.

They claim up to 1 million voters were unable to find their names on polling day on July 27, compromising the fairness of the elections.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the ceremony will go ahead regardless, even though some constitutional experts have disputed the legality of this move.

The CPP hold 90 seats and its partner, the royalist Funcinpec Party, holds two, but despite its poor showing, Funcinpec is expected to maintain its coalition position as members of the formerly dominant party are intricately woven into the army, police, government and public.

Analysts say undoing the coalition, which was formed under the UN after it assisted the first democratic multi-party election in 1993, could cause instability and the CPP now has the numbers to overrule any opposition in the parliament, making it a moot issue.

Source: www.monstersandcritics.com

US praises Cambodian election as the most free

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodian elections were the freest ever held in the Southeast Asian country, the United States said Friday, though it concluded media coverage of the campaign was biased toward the ruling party.

The upbeat assessment of Sunday’s election in which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party won a landslide victory comes as the opposition is refusing to recognize the results. It claims there was widespread irregularities.

«Cambodia’s National Assembly election was freer than any election previously held in the country and the vast majority of Cambodia’s registered voters were able to express their will in a more open atmosphere than before,» the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

Voting irregularities «were relatively low in number and they do not appear to have affected the outcome or to have distorted the will of the Cambodian people,» the statement said.

Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won 90 seats in the 123-seat National Assembly, or lower house of parliament. The opposition Sam Rainsy Party won 26 seats, according to unofficial results.
The opposition party has rejected the results, accusing the National Election Committee of acting as a tool to help Hun Sen win.

It cited the committees alleged removal of tens of thousands of legitimate voters from electoral lists to prevent them from casting ballots for parties other than the ruling one. The election committee has dismissed the allegations.

Sunday’s voting was the fourth parliamentary election since the United Nations brokered a peace deal for the country in 1991, a process meant to end decades of civil unrest that included the 1975-79 genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Some 8.1 million Cambodians were registered voters, but the electoral body has not yet declared how many of them were able to cast their ballots.

While praising the ability of Cambodians to vote, the embassy concluded the atmosphere leading up to the vote was biased toward the ruling party.

Although the opposition had better access to state-run television during the campaigning than in the past, the CPP still dominated the airwaves of private stations that traditionally support it, the embassy said.
This «reflects a virtual monopoly by the CPP on the media and imbalanced the desired level playing field for contesting the elections,» it said.

On Tuesday, Martin Callanan, the head of an EU election monitoring team, gave a similar assessment of biases for the ruling party during the campaign.

But he said alleged vote irregularities would have to be on a very large scale to invalidate the outcome since Hun Sen’s party won with «a very large majority.

Source: Associated Press

Cambodia’s election Stability, sort of

After a dirty election, the prime minister tightens his grip

Reuters
Time not running out for Hun Sen

WHETHER Cambodia’s general election on July 27th was a success or a travesty depends on what you compare it with. A team of European Union observers said it fell well below international democratic standards. Tens of thousands of opposition supporters were excluded from the electoral register. There was widespread impersonation of voters, plus the usual vote-buying and glaring pro-government bias by broadcasters.

However, the election was also the least violent since the United Nations-sponsored one in 1993 that marked the end of decades of civil war. The victory of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and its leader, Hun Sen, means Cambodia is set for a further five years of corrupt and inept government but also, probably, of continued stability and rising prosperity.

Preliminary results suggest the CPP won around 90 seats (up from 73) in the 123-seat national assembly. The main opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, believes his party won around 27, up from 24 last time. The big losers were Cambodia’s once-powerful royalists. Divided and in disarray, the main royalist party, Funcinpec, shrank from 26 to perhaps just two seats; a splinter named after the exiled Prince Norodom Ranariddh did no better.

Though the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) wants the world to refuse to recognise the outcome, diplomats in Phnom Penh, the capital, believe the CPP has genuinely gained popularity thanks to Cambodia’s strong growth—10.3% last year, producing a boom in fancy office blocks and rural land prices. Mr Hun Sen also won some votes from his tough stance in an armed confrontation with Thailand over a patch of land near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, which a UN committee recently put on its “world heritage” list. The EU’s observers said that given the scale of the ruling party’s victory electoral fiddles seemed unlikely to have altered the outcome.

Source: www.economist.com

Cambodian opposition parties complain to king over election

	Photos 1 of 1 Cambodian election officials count ballots at a polling station

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian opposition parties have filed a complaint to King Norodom Sihamoni against election officials for allegedly preventing one million people from voting in last weekend’s poll.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party, Human Rights Party, and Norodom Ranariddh Party told the king that one million registered voters were cut from the rolls by National Election Committee (NEC) officials.

“ This act is an intentional mistake which is committed by election officials,” the parties said in the joint letter, released late Wednesday.

“ This is a serious mistake committed by NEC officials at all levels which prevented at least one million people from voting,” the letter said, asking the king to find a way for them to cast ballots before the announcement of official election results.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party has claimed a landslide victory in Sunday’s election, saying it captured at least 90 of the 123 seats in parliament. Final results of the poll are expected in September.

More than six million out of 8.1 million eligible voters cast ballots in the poll.

European Union election observers have said only about 50,000 could not find their names registered when they attempted to vote.

The NEC has denied opposition allegations that voters were left off the rolls on purpose.

International monitors said earlier this week that the election was flawed and did not meet key standards, despite a more peaceful campaign and improvements in the electoral process.

The opposition parties have rejected the results of the election and demanded a re-run of the poll.

Source: Channel News Asia

Cambodian opposition supporters rally against election results

PHNOM PENH: About 300 supporters of Cambodia’s main opposition party rallied in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to protest the results of the weekend election and to demand a re-run of the poll.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party has claimed victory in the Sunday poll, saying it captured at least 90 of the 123 seats in parliament, giving it more than a two-thirds majority.

“ We cannot accept the results of the election. Please cancel the results of the election and hold a re-vote,” opposition leader Sam Rainsy told the crowd gathered inside his party headquarters in the capital.

Sam Rainsy has estimated that one million out of 8.1 million registered voters were cut from the rolls, although European Union election observers have pegged that figure at 50,000.

“ It is very unjust,” Sam Rainsy said to the cheering crowds, adding that he will file complaints against National Election Committee (NEC) officials.

Dozens of police were deployed along the streets near Sam Rainsy Party headquarters to prevent a public demonstration. The party’s deputy secretary general Mu Sochua stood at the entrance, shouting over a loudhailer that the election was “ not free and unfair” and urging people to join the rally inside.

NEC secretary general Tep Nytha denied the opposition allegation that one million people had been denied a vote and said there was no law that permitted a re-run of the entire election.

“ The case that one million people could not vote because their names had been disappeared from voting lists is not correct,” he told AFP.

International monitors said Tuesday the election was flawed and did not meet key standards despite improvements in electoral processes.

Source: Channel News Asia

EU criticises Cambodia election

By Guy Delauney
BBC News, Phnom Penh

EU monitors said thousands of people were prevented from voting

Monitors from the European Union say Cambodia’s recent general election fell short of international standards.

They said the governing party dominated the media and the National Election Committee (NEC), and tens of thousands of people were disenfranchised.

But they also praised the smooth running of what was described as a “ technically good” election.

The EU observers were among 17,000 local and international monitors who observed the election.

While their findings were a mixed bag, there was certainly more criticism than praise.

The key issue was impartiality and the role of the governing Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

Large majority

The EU team said the CPP had made “ consistent and widespread” use of state resources for its own campaigning efforts.

The party dominated media coverage to an unacceptable degree, and the presence of officials connected to the CPP on the NEC compromised that institution’s independence.

The monitors said the NEC had disenfranchised 50,000 registered voters by allowing their names to be removed from the electoral roll.

But the EU’s chief observer, Martin Callanan, said that had not affected the result of the election.

“ Under the provisional results that have been published, the CPP clearly has a very large majority,” he said.

“ Therefore any irregularities which were proved would have to be on a very large scale in order to invalidate that result.”

The opposition parties beg to differ.

Four of them have rejected the provisional results, which give the CPP an overall majority.

They claim that hundreds of thousands of their supporters were unable to vote and that similar numbers of ineligible people were allowed to cast ballots.

Reporting the Cambodian elections

By Griffin Shea

I didn’t have very high hopes for covering elections in Cambodia, a country whose tragic and totalitarian past still echoes loudly. The same party has ruled since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Prime Minister Hun Sen has had his job for 23 years, and controls almost all the broadcast media. Television stations aired traditional song and dance routines instead of covering the elections.

Hun Sen also has a history of hauling journalists to court on defamation charges for critical stories. A journalist and his son were shot dead during the campaign. A radio station aligned to the opposition was shuttered the night before Sunday’s vote. Add to that the pervasive corruption and poverty, and it doesn’t inspire confidence that the process will be free and fair.

Maybe not. But, for all the problems, there is an openness here that is still unimaginable countries like nearby Myanmar where military rule remains absolute and no journalist visas have been granted in a year.

Government officials here answer their cell phones, and give quotes on the record. (The government spokesman didn’t like that we called Hun Sen a “ one-eyed former guerrilla” — he lost an eye fighting for the Khmer Rouge — but he didn’t press the point and kept answering our questions).

For a small country, newspapers are many and vibrant. And there is a sense of optimism, that after suffering through a genocide and decades of civil war, Cambodia is finally trying to join the modern world. Roads are getting paved, banks and skyscrapers are sprouting up, and gas stations are opening to replace the makeshift shops selling fuel from empty Coke bottles.

The situation for foreign and local reporters is not as we would like it yet. But it is improving. As countries like Cambodia inch ahead, dictatorial holdouts like Myanmar get left farther behind.

Source: AFP