Election observers must observe ongoing election tricks before Voting Day

June 1, 2012

ELECTION OBSERVERS MUST OBSERVE ONGOING ELECTION TRICKS BEFORE VOTING DAY

In my May 30 statement titled "Preventing the CPP from distorting the people's will", I elaborated on the two main tricks used by the ruling party to manipulate elections including the June 1 commune elections: Disenfranchisement and Impersonation (see text below).

Based on past experience and recommendations from opposition grassroots activists throughout the country, I have suggested practical measures to counter the impersonation voter fraud scheme that is being implemented by the CPP with the complicity of the biased National Election Committee (NEC).

Because the NEC refuses to examine any transparency-based measure as the ones I legitimately suggested, the situation is getting out of control with regards to the issuing by CPP local authorities of controversial voter identification documents whose official name is "Identification Document" or "Statement of Identity", which is the new version of "Form 1018" decried in 2008 by the Election Observation Mission from the European Union..

The corresponding impersonation voter fraud scheme allows the CPP to secure a landslide election victory before Election Day in those communes where "Statements of Identity" are being fraudulently issued to illegitimate voters on an unprecedented scale.

On Election Day, there is no need for any election observer to observe anything in any polling station in any commune where the CPP has been implementing its impersonation voter fraud scheme many days before Election Day: There is no point in observing a forgone conclusion unfold.

Excerpt from an authoritative election report published in 2008 by a group of researchers from Princeton University (USA): "The CPP uses a variety of tactics to illegitimately define who can and cannot participate in the electoral process. This reflects the CPP's shift in focus from manipulation on Election Day to manipulation in the months leading up to Election Day. By enfranchising illegitimate but loyal CPP supporters and disenfranchising opposition supporters, the CPP can influence electoral outcomes in advance.

http://tinyurl.com/79ueagx

Sam Rainsy

Elected Member of Parliament

Leader of the Opposition

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May 30, 2012

PREVENTING THE CPP FROM DISTORTING THE PEOPLE'S WILL AT NEXT SUNDAY'S

COMMUNE ELECTIONS

As a general pattern the ruling CPP has two combined ways to manipulate elections so as to secure a landslide victory before Voting Day: Disenfranchisement and Impersonation.

I- SYSTEMATIC DISENFRANCHISEMENT TO REDUCE VOTES FOR THE OPPOSITION There is a massive disenfranchisement affecting citizens that CPP-affiliated village chiefs and other local officials throughout the country have identified as non-CPP supporters or potential opposition voters. Based on political reports from CPP grassroots agents, the CPP-controlled National Election Committee (NEC) establishes voter lists in such a way as to exclude as many opposition voters as possible. According to independent observers from COMFREL (Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia), up to 1.5 million Cambodians representing 17 percent of the electorate will lose their right to vote in the upcoming commune elections due to irregularities in voters' registration lists (*).

II- SYSTEMATIC IMPERSONATION TO INFLATE VOTES FOR THE RULING PARTY At the same time that countless real citizens and legitimate voters are excluded from voters' registration lists (see Point I related to disenfranchisement), the NEC slyly keeps countless ghost voters' names in voter lists in order to allow illegitimate voters paid or manipulated by the CPP to cast votes through impersonation with the use of controversial voter identification documents fraudulently issued by CPP local officials who control the country. According to independent observers, ghost voters represent up to 10 percent of registered voters in many polling stations. The controversial voter identification documents are a new version of "Form 1018" now called "Identification Document" with similar characteristics as "Form 1018" that easily allow fraud (**). Moreover, with more and more CPP-affiliated state employees being encouraged to register as voters more than once at different places (see evidence presented by the opposition SRP at their May 29 press conference) and also with the increasing number of migrant workers who will not be able to vote at the place where they were originally registered as voters, the CPP will be in a position to make use of a larger number of ghost voters' names for impersonation through illegally issued voter "Identification Documents", thus allowing them to bring a larger number of illegitimate voters into polling stations on Voting Day. Those illegitimate voters will be fraudulently given the names and voting rights of ghost voters to inflate votes for the CPP.

There are three transparency-based measures that could prevent the implementation of the CPP impersonation voter fraud scheme:

1. Before Voting Day, all CPP commune chiefs assisted by CPP-appointed commune clerks must issue a public report giving detailed information on voter "Identification Documents" they have issued in their respective communes purportedly for voters who don't have any other ID documents.
2. On Voting Day, a copy of all officially and legally issued voter "Identification Documents" to be used by a limited number of voters at each polling station, must be posted at the corresponding polling station, thus allowing election observers to detect any voter fraudulently issued with "Identification Documents".
3. On Voting Day, all remaining blank and unused forms of voter "Identification Documents" as well as the commune stamp validating any official documents, must be locked in a place that can be seen by everybody, thus ensuring that no voter "Identification Document" could be issued on Voting Day, as prohibited in election regulations (***).

If the CPP and the NEC are not willing to implement the three above measures they are confirming that they want to proceed with their plan to manipulate elections and distort the people's will.

Sam Rainsy

Elected Member of Parliament

Leader of the Opposition

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(*) Please read reports from The Cambodia Daily http://tinyurl.com/7fedv8e and Radio Free Asia http://tinyurl.com/899t9f7

(**) In their final report the Election Observation Mission from the European Union asked the Cambodian government to abolish the use of "Form 1018", which they claimed was fraudulently issued at polling stations during the last national elections in July 2008 http://tinyurl.com/crr9jrt

(***) The use of "Form 1018" and its new version "Identification Document" is essential in the implementation of the CPP impersonation voter fraud scheme. This explains why the CPP-led government has shown no willingness to issue standardized National ID Cards to all citizens. Once all citizens have in their possession the same National ID Card, all "Forms 1018" and other controversial voter "Identification Documents" would disappear and the CPP would not be able to manipulate elections on such a large scale as now.