Calling for an investigation into alleged cheating, Cambodia's
opposition has rejected its narrow loss to long-time Prime Minister Hun
Sen's party.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Just minutes after the polls closed Sunday, an orange-robed monk
remonstrated with officials at a central Phnom Penh voting station, less
than a kilometer from Prime Minister Hun Sen's House.“Where was my name? They did not have my name,” he shouted, saying he
wasn't listed to vote, even though he cast his ballot at the same place
in previous elections.
His was a common complaint on Sunday.
The opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) claimed that more
than 1 million voters were omitted from polling center lists all over
the country, preventing them from voting in Cambodia’s closest election in nearly two decades.
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Opposition leader Sam Rainsy
rejected the ruling party’s claim to victory on Monday morning, citing
cheating and calling for an investigation into the alleged election
fraud.
“We ask the government and the NEC [National Election
Committee, Cambodia's electoral management body] to send a
representative to join the committee we propose,” says Yim Sovann,
spokesman for the CNRP.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan dismissed
the opposition’s call for an investigation, saying that opposition
parties typically contest election results and that there are official
agencies in place to address electoral complaints. “The NEC was
established by the assembly and has this mandate, and there is also the
Constitutional Council,” he says.
Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party
(CPP) says it has won 68 seats compared with the opposition's 55 – out
of 123 available. Though the CNRP gained 26 seats for the new coalition,
the opposition was satisfied by neither the increase nor the potential
emergence of a two-party system.
Mr. Hun Sen has been in power in
Cambodia since 1985, and the CPP had been widely expected to win the
election, but the widespread reports of polling irregularities –
including reports that the indelible ink used to indicate that someone
had voted was easily washed off, and that voters went to the polls only
to find out that someone else had already used their ballot – marred the
results.
The Cambodian wing of Transparency International, a
global corruption research group, called for an investigation, saying
that 60 percent of polling stations had complaints from voters who said
they were not on voter lists.
“It was rigged,” says Mam Sonando, a
radio journalist jailed numerous times, most recently on charges of
“insurrection,” adding that Cambodians may yet take to the streets to
protest the election outcome.
Economic record
Hun
Sen, now winner of the country's past four elections, did little
campaigning, leaving the CPP to run on its popular economic record and
delivery of infrastructure to the countryside. But the CPP’s overtures
came with a hint of menace, say analysts: Hun Sen also played on voter
fears saying early in the election season that an opposition win could
prompt civil war.
Sunday's vote came as a country, once synonymous with the mass murders of the bloody Khmer Rouge
regime of the 1970s, has seen an average 7 percent growth, powered by
donor aid, clothing exports, and Chinese investment. Cambodia is still
one of Asia's poorest countries, with 80 percent of the population
working the land and income levels around the same as fellow
garment-export hub Bangladesh.
Though the official election
results won’t finish being tallied until around August 15, it appears
this has been the closest race for Cambodia in almost two decades.
Analysts say this is due in part to younger opposition voters who were
energized by the return from self-imposed exile of Mr. Sam Rainsy, the
opposition leader. (Read the Monitor reporting on the influence of young voters in Cambodia)
Young voters
Sam
Rainsy, a proponent of change, was sentenced in absentia to 11 years in
prison in 2010 on charges he says were politically motivated, but was
given a royal pardon last month. His party’s campaign may have been
marred by repeated use of the derogatory term “youn” to describe
Vietnamese – a significant ethnic minority in Cambodia.
Borders
between the ancient Khmer and Vietnamese kingdoms have moved east and
west over the centuries, while Hun Sen rose to office on the back of a
1979 invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, which ousted the brutal Khmer
Rouge from power.
But first-time voters such as Lyav Ly Houng, who
hopes to start her own business once she finishes university, were
motivated by a desire to see Cambodia become more prosperous. She says
that regardless of who forms the next government, there needs to be more
opportunities for Cambodians.
“The main thing is that this country can develop and the people can earn a living,” she says.
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Kalyanee Mam, an award-winning Cambodian filmmaker who fled the Khmer
Rouge as a child before resettling in the United States, says that
Cambodia's next administration needs to do more to curb land grabs as
well as improve working conditions in the garment sector and address the
growing rich-poor gap.
“The big fear I have for this country is
even if we continue to grow economically, we will just have a small
group of very wealthy at the top, and a mass of poor underneath, with
nothing in between,” she says.
2 comments:
INT’L OBSERVER recognized & pleased with the outcomes\
in which 68seats for CPP & 55seats for CNRP ..
KILL ALL THE CPP CROOKS NOW ! ! ! DON'T LET THEM KILL OUR NATION & OUR CHILDREN.
DONT LET THEM GET AWAY. TIME IS NOW NOW NOW NOW ! ! !
SIGNED: KHMER YOUTH MOVEMENT
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