Thursday, 27 October 2011
Bridget Di Certo and Kim Yuthana
Phnom Penh Post
Three SRP politicians yesterday stonewalled a conference on voter registration results organised by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel), complaining that Vietnamese citizens had been allowed to register to vote.
The alleged enrolment of Vietnamese citizens showed there was “no effectiveness in the working [of the NEC]” the SRP’s Kuoy Bunroeun (pictured) said.
Announced voter registration numbers were more than 192 per cent above the prediction of the National Election Committee for the 2012 commune-district elections.
“The NEC’s estimate is completely wrong,” Kuoy Bunroeun said.
“This shows 100 per cent that there is no true mechanism to ensure the effectiveness of the process of free and fair elections.”
The SRP’s concern was that non-Cambodian citizens were being allowed to register to vote, Comfrel president Koul Panha clarified.
“But Comfrel has found that the ethnic Vietnamese who registered to vote have all the necessary citizenship papers,” Koul Panha told the Post.
“It is always a big controversy whenever there is an election, but you cannot do anything about it because they [the ethnic Vietnamese] have documents signed by the authorities saying that they are Cambodian citizens.
Koul Panha echoed concerns that the registered number of voters was so far off the NEC’s prediction.
“The number is surprisingly high if you consider all the flooding and natural disaster that has swept the country,” he said.
“We think it may be the case that some voters have registered at two places because people have migrated and there is no current system . . . to delete the duplicate names.”
NEC secretary-general Tep Nitha conceded the registration number was high and there was probably a fair degree of doubling-up by voters.
“The number of registrations is on the rise, but when we total the lists of overlapping names, we still expect the numbers to be increased maybe 103 to 105 per cent on the prediction. We cannot avoid small problems happening.”
Three SRP politicians yesterday stonewalled a conference on voter registration results organised by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel), complaining that Vietnamese citizens had been allowed to register to vote.
The alleged enrolment of Vietnamese citizens showed there was “no effectiveness in the working [of the NEC]” the SRP’s Kuoy Bunroeun (pictured) said.
Announced voter registration numbers were more than 192 per cent above the prediction of the National Election Committee for the 2012 commune-district elections.
“The NEC’s estimate is completely wrong,” Kuoy Bunroeun said.
“This shows 100 per cent that there is no true mechanism to ensure the effectiveness of the process of free and fair elections.”
The SRP’s concern was that non-Cambodian citizens were being allowed to register to vote, Comfrel president Koul Panha clarified.
“But Comfrel has found that the ethnic Vietnamese who registered to vote have all the necessary citizenship papers,” Koul Panha told the Post.
“It is always a big controversy whenever there is an election, but you cannot do anything about it because they [the ethnic Vietnamese] have documents signed by the authorities saying that they are Cambodian citizens.
Koul Panha echoed concerns that the registered number of voters was so far off the NEC’s prediction.
“The number is surprisingly high if you consider all the flooding and natural disaster that has swept the country,” he said.
“We think it may be the case that some voters have registered at two places because people have migrated and there is no current system . . . to delete the duplicate names.”
NEC secretary-general Tep Nitha conceded the registration number was high and there was probably a fair degree of doubling-up by voters.
“The number of registrations is on the rise, but when we total the lists of overlapping names, we still expect the numbers to be increased maybe 103 to 105 per cent on the prediction. We cannot avoid small problems happening.”
1 comment:
Hanoi government illegally sent Viet voters into Cambodia to help Hun Sen's CPP government win in the last election. This is not a speculation or a question. It is known fact. Hanoi are well behind in Cambodian politic. It controls who win and lose an election. Since Hun Sen is Hanoi's puppet, Hanoi will cheat and lies to help him win. Alot things that are going wrong in Cambodia, Hanoi government has something to do with that. Hanoi government deserves some blaming for its interfering and meddling in Cambodia's internal affairs.
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