US voters like this man surged to booths in record numbers Tuesday, but the turnout was much lower than Cambodia's worst.By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 November 2008
The victory of US president-elect Barack Obama surprised the world Tuesday, but another surprise was the high number of US voters, perhaps the most in 100 years.
The high number was amazing for the US, but if Cambodia put up the same numbers in an election, election experts say, it would be worrisome.
“The worry is that when the [Cambodian] participation rate is down, it is usually linked with intimidation and threat,” said Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But [US citizens] are in a democratic country; they have full freedom to express their opinions.”
US citizens have been voting for more than 200 years, 44 presidential election cycles, he said.
According to Real Clear Politics, a monitoring group, an estimated 64.1 percent of registered voters participated in Tueday’s US election. That is higher than in any presidential election since 1908, when William Howard Taft won and 65.7 percent of voters turned out.
By comparison, the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy saw a 63.8 percent turnout, while the election of George W. Bush in 2004 drew 55.3 percent.
In Cambodia’s national election this July, turnout fell to 75 percent from more than 90 percent in the 1993 Untac polls.
Members of civil society and opposition officials say the lowered turnout has a negative effect of the democratic process here.
“The turnout of more than 60 percent is a high score in the US presidential election, compared with the past US elections,” said Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But for Cambodia, like a country in transitional democracy, the absence of voters is due to buying votes and other problems that prevent voters from deciding to vote.”
“If the turnout in Cambodia is down, it’s because the people do not have any more confidence in the election process,” said Ke Sovannaroth, acting secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party, which sent a letter of congratulations to Obama and US voters Thursday. “They lack information for voting. They receive threats and intimidation.”
However, National Election Committee Secretary-General Tep Nitha said the threats and intimidation was not the real cause of the lower turnout in July.
“There were many threats during the 1993 election, and the turnout was more than 90 percent,” he said. “But in 2008, voters were safer, but the turnout was down. It is different, compared to the US election. In the US election, they voted for change.”
In 2008, more than 8 million Cambodians registered to vote. In 2013, that number is expected to reach 9.5 million.
The high number was amazing for the US, but if Cambodia put up the same numbers in an election, election experts say, it would be worrisome.
“The worry is that when the [Cambodian] participation rate is down, it is usually linked with intimidation and threat,” said Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But [US citizens] are in a democratic country; they have full freedom to express their opinions.”
US citizens have been voting for more than 200 years, 44 presidential election cycles, he said.
According to Real Clear Politics, a monitoring group, an estimated 64.1 percent of registered voters participated in Tueday’s US election. That is higher than in any presidential election since 1908, when William Howard Taft won and 65.7 percent of voters turned out.
By comparison, the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy saw a 63.8 percent turnout, while the election of George W. Bush in 2004 drew 55.3 percent.
In Cambodia’s national election this July, turnout fell to 75 percent from more than 90 percent in the 1993 Untac polls.
Members of civil society and opposition officials say the lowered turnout has a negative effect of the democratic process here.
“The turnout of more than 60 percent is a high score in the US presidential election, compared with the past US elections,” said Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But for Cambodia, like a country in transitional democracy, the absence of voters is due to buying votes and other problems that prevent voters from deciding to vote.”
“If the turnout in Cambodia is down, it’s because the people do not have any more confidence in the election process,” said Ke Sovannaroth, acting secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party, which sent a letter of congratulations to Obama and US voters Thursday. “They lack information for voting. They receive threats and intimidation.”
However, National Election Committee Secretary-General Tep Nitha said the threats and intimidation was not the real cause of the lower turnout in July.
“There were many threats during the 1993 election, and the turnout was more than 90 percent,” he said. “But in 2008, voters were safer, but the turnout was down. It is different, compared to the US election. In the US election, they voted for change.”
In 2008, more than 8 million Cambodians registered to vote. In 2013, that number is expected to reach 9.5 million.
11 comments:
These foreign experts should spend their energy hitting the right cow (bête) than laying and speculating over election in Cambodia. How democratic process in Cambodia can progress under the reign of animal and tyranny where rights and human dignity are much neglected and bashing ? Hope these people would have some dignity to denounce crime against humanity in Cambodia since the time of pol pot.
For many of ordinary Cambodians, genocide was not end at 7 January 1979 but just take another figure at another level with another tools
If CPP didn't intimidate or had election fraud they wouldn't win at all. If there is free and fair election I bet you SAM Rainsy will won. I'm really pretty sure about this.
Khmer PP,
What a shit load of crock? In the US only about 33% of the population is voting while, in Cambodia, over 50% of the population is voting.
Again, too many people in the US , including Ah Pleu-Oversea,has IQ as low as a frog and got their fake degree online.
What shitty conclusions those 'pros', especially that SRP guy, draw. 75% is a normal turnout wherever you look. 90% in 1993 was still rooted in Communist times when voting was mandatory. Whole swaths of the rural population didn't know they could stay away if they wanted. Another factor, was the great hope for change people had in 1993, really the first really free election in Cambodia's history. Not even Sihanouk came close holding free elections. A lot crock on this site.
You guys in this room just known how to complain,you don't know how to do it.Why khmer people have the guys like you in this room? They better die in pol pot regime.Why you guys in this room compare khmer election day with USA ? I quest all of you are blinding people.Khmer just got peaceful not over 20 years yet. I believe people in this room Siems connection.
Be cause the election is not fair in Cambodia, many complaints not to be resolve.Pls.open big eye and study the depth tricks of Vietcong.Do you want to be CHAMPA II in this century again????.Watch and see man.3:53
Old-school again!
"know only to complain but not doing"!
I am sick and tired of hearing this hundreds of thousand times and again and again.
Can you all, government officials TAKE YOUR STEP DOWN AND LET OTHERS PERFORM THE TASKS.
Then we all will see if they are good at only "SPEAKING".
DO NOT JUST SAY BUT MUST ALSO DO. TENDER YOUR RESIGNATION TO LET OTHERS DO THE JOBS, OK?
No way, Jose (10:10), we are not going to let no idiot with fake online degree to do any job in Cambodia.
We are moving in the right direction, and we want to keep it that way. We're not going to follow no Washington's shit.
All bastart and stupid Cambodian. You are still silly, misunderstood of all the act of bastart with bloody hand hun sen (ah kvak) who always threaten, intimidate, kill, assassinate, shoot onto the beloved Cambodian or Khmer ordinary people who live under his dictatorship and genocide as Pol Pot who he used to indict him as genocide. I am not an oversea guy, I am an ordinary guy living in cambodia for my whole life, I think. I faced all type of sufferring during Pol Pot regime and heng samrin regime till ah kvak and monarchy regime nowadays. It is not only me, all poor ordinary Khmer people have been sufferring and stress of living under the communist regime as a bloody guy puppet of yuon. I am fed up to see and hear the shit mouth of all of the bloody guys of this government. It is THE SHIT GOVERNMENT, and if your guys ahve different brain, just read and listen, don't shout, don't yell.
Is ti enough, all bloody guys.
Then why are you screaming 1:50 PM?
Something must be very wrong with you?
3:45 PM your guy is a CPP that is why you dislike this issue. Poor CPP guy, try to cleanse your brain from yuon's slave.
Post a Comment