By Seiha
Sralanh Khmer
Translated from Khmer
The National Election Committee [NEC] has deleted the names of 892 Vietnamese from the voter list in Kampong Luong commune, Krakor district, Pursat province in response to a complaint lodge by the Sam Rainsy Party [SRP] of Pursat province. The deletion of these names took place during a hearing on 7 November in Kampong Luong commune.
Heng Chanthuon, chairman of the SRP of Pursat province, lodged a complaint with the NEC urging it to scrap the names of Vietnamese nationals who registered to vote in this commune. The hearing decided to eliminate the names of 892 Vietnamese nationals, 438 of them women, from the name list. However, there were many other Vietnamese in Pursat province whose names have not yet been taken out by the NEC.
This removal of Vietnamese names from the voter list was made in reference to Article 19, new, Chapter III, of the law on the right to register to vote and the right to vote.
A few days ago, at Chba Ampeu II precinct, Chamka Mon ward, Phnom Penh, the NEC also decided to scrap the names of 51 Vietnamese from the voter list in response to a complaint by SRP officials. This morning, at the NEC office inside the compound of the Ministry of Interior, there will be another hearing to the complaint of SRP officials requesting the deletion of more Vietnamese nationals' names.
Last week, the SRP leadership demanded that the NEC erase some of the many Vietnamese names in Prey Veng province.
Last week, opposition party leader Sam Rainsy stated his suspicion that tens of thousands of Vietnamese could cross the border to register to vote in Svay Rieng province.
Besides succeeding in a few complaints to have the names of Vietnamese nationals who registered to determine Cambodia's destiny deleted from the voter lists, the SRP leadership in some provinces and cities called for the permission to allow any Cambodians who have not registered to vote to come forth and register to vote, such as those in Sihanoukville.
However, the NEC refused to let tens of thousands of citizens whom the Phnom Penh City Hall deported to the city outskirts, those who were victims of a land grab in Phnum Sruoch district, Kampong Speu province, and those in Ampil Pram Daeum commune, Bavel district, Batdambang province, on the grounds that these citizens were undocumented.
The ruling party has created difficulty for Cambodian citizens to register to vote, but it has created favorable conditions for the Vietnamese nationals to register instead.
In another incident COMFREL [Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia] has discovered ghost names in the voter lists totaling some 600,000 names, or 10 percent of the more than 6 million registered voters. However, NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha claimed that the ghost names were only 4 percent of the total number of registered voters, or representing only some 150,000 persons.
Keeping lists of ghost names and registering Vietnamese nationals in the voter lists so that they could determine the destiny of Cambodia show the intention of the ruling party working in cahoots with the NEC.
Heng Chanthuon, chairman of the SRP of Pursat province, lodged a complaint with the NEC urging it to scrap the names of Vietnamese nationals who registered to vote in this commune. The hearing decided to eliminate the names of 892 Vietnamese nationals, 438 of them women, from the name list. However, there were many other Vietnamese in Pursat province whose names have not yet been taken out by the NEC.
This removal of Vietnamese names from the voter list was made in reference to Article 19, new, Chapter III, of the law on the right to register to vote and the right to vote.
A few days ago, at Chba Ampeu II precinct, Chamka Mon ward, Phnom Penh, the NEC also decided to scrap the names of 51 Vietnamese from the voter list in response to a complaint by SRP officials. This morning, at the NEC office inside the compound of the Ministry of Interior, there will be another hearing to the complaint of SRP officials requesting the deletion of more Vietnamese nationals' names.
Last week, the SRP leadership demanded that the NEC erase some of the many Vietnamese names in Prey Veng province.
Last week, opposition party leader Sam Rainsy stated his suspicion that tens of thousands of Vietnamese could cross the border to register to vote in Svay Rieng province.
Besides succeeding in a few complaints to have the names of Vietnamese nationals who registered to determine Cambodia's destiny deleted from the voter lists, the SRP leadership in some provinces and cities called for the permission to allow any Cambodians who have not registered to vote to come forth and register to vote, such as those in Sihanoukville.
However, the NEC refused to let tens of thousands of citizens whom the Phnom Penh City Hall deported to the city outskirts, those who were victims of a land grab in Phnum Sruoch district, Kampong Speu province, and those in Ampil Pram Daeum commune, Bavel district, Batdambang province, on the grounds that these citizens were undocumented.
The ruling party has created difficulty for Cambodian citizens to register to vote, but it has created favorable conditions for the Vietnamese nationals to register instead.
In another incident COMFREL [Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia] has discovered ghost names in the voter lists totaling some 600,000 names, or 10 percent of the more than 6 million registered voters. However, NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha claimed that the ghost names were only 4 percent of the total number of registered voters, or representing only some 150,000 persons.
Keeping lists of ghost names and registering Vietnamese nationals in the voter lists so that they could determine the destiny of Cambodia show the intention of the ruling party working in cahoots with the NEC.
1 comment:
There is no doubt that the NEC is the election instrument of the CPP. As the CPP is controlled by the Viets, it is the NEC's job to ensure that the Viet nationals are given a preferential treatment and registered without questions. The NEC knows that those victims of the CPP land grabbers and other victims of the CPP henchmen will not vote for the CPP, so they have to be excluded from the registration.
The ballot papers have been specially prepared for those Viet nationals and ghost names. In the past, they were filled by Cambodian children recruited and trained to mark the desired box on the ballot paper correctly. These children, who are now teenagers or in their early 20s, later recalled being kept in a secret room to fill in large quantities of ballot papers in favour of the CPP. They were paid for doing this work, but they had no clue what the ballot papers were for until they have grown up and taken part in the subsequent elections. So it was not surprising that Ung Huot complained why there was not a single ballot count for his Reast Niyum Party in his commune in spite of the fact that he and his relatives cast the votes in favour of his own party.
Time and time again, the NEC has shown its blatant impartiality in favour of the CPP. As long as the NEC remains under the CPP control, the CPP will always secure its majority win through fraud ballot counts and other managed irregularities.
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