Monday, April 02, 2007

Commune Election: SRP takes 2nd place, voters’ participation declines

Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy waves after voting at the local governing councils' election in Phnom Penh April 1 ,2007 . REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Monday, April 02, 2007
By KS, LD, SG
Cambodge Soir

Unofficial Translation from French by Tola Ek

Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French

The CPP confirmed yesterday evening its hegemonic political position by winning 1,593 communes over the total of 1,621, according to the poll. The SRP took the second spot with 26 communes, and thus confirmed its position as the second party in the country. Voters’ participation is on the decline.

Like what happened during the election campaign, the elections took place in an atmosphere of relative calm. This is a sign of normalization of the election process, which is less subjected to violence and all kinds of tension, unlike in the past. In various communes, the same comments can be heard among the voters: “It’s better than before, we are no longer afraid to go to vote.” Yesterday, in the early evening, Khieu Kanharith, the Minister of Information, assured that the CPP again took the first spot. No surprise there. Even though he said that he did not have the final numbers yet, he nevertheless affirmed that his party took three communes from the SRP in Phnom Penh (the SRP had 6 communes in Phnom Penh in 2002).

The Sam Rainsy Party had nevertheless earned the second place right behind the ruling party, according to its Secretary-General, Mu Sochua. Sam Rainsy confided yesterday evening that there are only two major political parties left in the country, thus the voters are left between “the status-quo with the CPP and the SRP’s reform.” If he said that he was satisfied that the SRP doubled its number of councilors where the party took the lead, he is mostly satisfied to see his party extending its power into more remote areas of the country. Ok Socheat, a close advisor to Prince Ranariddh, was self congratulating yesterday that the NRP, even though it didn’t win any commune at all, reached the 3rd position in terms of number of votes obtained, ahead of the Funcinpec “which tried to eliminate the NRP from the election.” On the Funcinpec side, Nouv Sovathero, the party’s spokesman, declined to comment. Could this be an admission of failure?

Yesterday, by the end of the day, the National Election Committee (NEC) declared that there was no substantial irregularities to report in the 14,428 polling stations in the country. He announced at the same time the percentage of voters’ participation: 70%, a number computed from the results obtained in 20 cities and provinces, three hours before the closing of the polling stations. During the previous 2002 commune election, there were 4.5 million voters, with a participation rate of 87%. “The voters’ participation rate declined since 1998, but the number of voters increase along the years,” Tep Nytha, the NEC secretary-general, tried to assure.

Tep Nytha’s optimism is not shared by Mar Sophal, the head of the investigators of the Comfrel NGO, who said yesterday that he was worried by the voters’ apathy. “This means that the results will not reflect the general opinion,” he explained this phenomenon by the various irregularities involved in the election process. Tep Nytha admitted that there were problems here and there, but he insisted that they were “technical issues.” He also recalled an isolated case in Kompong Thom where a drunk man dropped a lighted cigarette butt with his voting ballot. The jokester was imposed a severe fine, Comfrel accuses the vote buying by the local authorities, the use of chartered buses by the CPP to bring the voters to the polling station, various threats pronounced as well as abuses of the voting process. According to the NEC rules, the political parties have up to 11:30 AM this morning to deposit its complaints. The results should be completed within 3 days, and will be certified on April 24.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you know that the ruling party will not leave office even if it loses the election, and you know you will have trouble with the local authorities if you do not at least passively support the ruling party, and you know you don't want to ever have the local ruling party aurhorities look you in the eye and ask who you voted for, and have to lie, then you vote for the ruling party. Anyone who calls that "democracy" is a liar or a horse's ass.

Anonymous said...

3:37PM

I totally agree with you. What you said are true in present Cambodia situation.

Government can predict correctly the votes and the landslide victory they will get because they have already been controling Cambodian people in both mentally and physically.

CPP's democracy through such voting is just an old song of communism regime to arrange election only to ban people power and legitimize their government in the international stage.

Democratization and SPR needs to work harder and harder! One day, the very intelligent strategy can make CPP satisfied...

Anonymous said...

Man... Khmer people had all the power but just being fool and just give out their power to the CPP's in the voting process. I look forward to see more pigs out there driving new cars and evict more people from there home.

Anonymous said...

It's not true that voters' participation declines. Both NEC and CPP manipulated the voters registration process to keep out those who were likely to support other political parties.

Before the polling began, the CPP Commune Offices could actually collect voters' ID papers from NEC and distribute them to people in their communes. They called it a value-added service to entice people who were still undecided.

The CPP used state finance and resources for their own election campaign, such as gifts and leaflets. They could use billboards that would be denied to other parties and they control the media. What chances do other political parties have?

Anonymous said...

PLEASE SPORTMANSHIP CULTURE!

LET BANISH FOR EVER THE CULTURE OF COMPLAINING AND DIFFAMATION!

Anonymous said...

WELL DONE! BORN FROM THE PEOPLE, SERVE THE PEOPLE AND DIE FOR THE PEOPLE... THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR CPP!

spr= born abroad, cheat the people and die for uncle sam... THE PEOPLE HATED AND DID NOT VOTE FOR sam rain shit party.

Anonymous said...

CPP's born from Dog, serve the dog master and get eaten by it master later. The dogs surrounded the people and force them to vote for the CPP.

SRP born in France stupid 7:06 PM comment and you serve uncle Ho...get it HO?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous crazy gringos said at 10:16 PM

Put him back in cage. he contained virus: aids= ALIEN IDIOT DONKEY SYMPTOM

Anonymous said...

Actually, the SRP cheated. They got
caught a couple times before the
election, but I am sure they've gotten away with 10 times that
amounts. They took many voters
from the royalists, but we're not
going to waste the Taxpayers'
money to challenge them in court
because we are the Coolest People
Party (CPP).

Anonymous said...

This is a great test of Yuan communist to overview their new effective win win strategy in Cambodia.

Bravo bravo Yuan Yuan!

Anonymous said...

That's right. "Win" is khmer middle
name. That is why you LOSERS
shouldn't be here. Nobody what to
listen to losers. Get it?

Anonymous said...

2:02 AM you must be the loser and your master must be very generous in giving you gifts and I wish you live long to your service of the Dog world.

Anonymous said...

BORN FROM THE PEOPLE, SERVE THE PEOPLE AND DIE FOR THE PEOPLE = CPP AND THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR THEM TO WIN.

CAMBODIAN PEOPLE AGAINST

AIDS = ALIENS INFECTED DONKEYS SYNDROM FROM K LOKOS GRINGOS IN THE US, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA.

TOO LATE SRP= SUPER RETARDED PARROT! go away with your syndrom...

Anonymous said...

Moi, loser? You got it backward,
Dude. It is you who love loser.
All I ever heard from you is the
SRP this and the SRP that. When are
you going to be in the real life
again, huh?