United As Losers

(L-R) Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha (Human Right Party), Sisowath Sirirath (Funcinpec) and Muth Chantha (Norodom Ranariddh Party) united in rejecting the election results.

Opinion by Khmerization
30th July 2008

“United as losers will not achieve anything. Unity must happen when unity is needed the most and in this case, it should happen before the election.”

Once again the Cambodian opposition has shown the Cambodian voters and the world that they are so united against the Cambodian People’s Party and electoral fraud. Time and time again, the Cambodian opposition has proven that they are so united as losers, but evidently they were so divided when they should be united. I am talking about their failure to unite before the election.

I have great sympathy for their cry foul because, like them, I believe that the past three elections have been flawed and fraudulently rigged. But I must say that, without any prejudice or partiality, I am very disappointed with their behaviours so far because, as usual, they are united and on talking term only when they lost the election already. On the contrary, they were fighting each other like cats and dogs before the election. If they have not been so divided and if they were so united before the election, like what they are doing now, the election results and the political landscape would have been a little bit tilted in their favours.

The arrogance that have been shown by the Human Right Party, the Sam Rainsy Party as well as the Norodom Ranariddh Party has costed them dearly. Each and everyone of them were so arrogant about their electoral chances that they never took the formation of an alliance with each other seriously. Now they probably realised that they have made a big mistake by not forming an alliance before the election, but the past is the past and it cannot be undone. And 5 more years waiting in the opposition bench.

In spite of my rave review of the opposition’s disarray, I am sympathetic with their cause. They, especially the Sam Rainsy Party, have been campaigning very successfully with high turn out, only to be robbed at the ballot box and at vote-counting. I believe that the 26 seats said to have been won by the Sam Rainsy Party does not reflect the real election results and the true will of the voters. With the high numbers of turn out at every Sam Rainsy Party’s rally, this party should have won more seats, far more than the 26 seats. Irregularities and electoral fraud committed by the Cambodian People’s Party are the main causes and reasons for the poor performance by the Sam Rainsy Party and the unexpected good performance of the Cambodian People’s Party.

To sum up the election results, I would say that it is a fraudulent election that did not reflect the true will of the Cambodian voters. But equally, it was a result of the disunity of the opposition as well. United as losers will not achieve anything. Unity must happen when unity is needed the most and in this case, it should happen before the election.

The Cambodian Election: It Is A Travesty Of Democracy

Opinion by Khmerization

28th July 2008

“The premature claim of victory by the CPP has a sinister connotation. It was a psychological war and was designed to divert the attention of the electoral observers in order to whitewash the electoral fraud, irregularities and vote-rigging.”

The yesterday’s election can be considered as smoother and better than the previous ones in the sense that politically-related violence is down, but it cannot be said that it is any fairer and freer when it comes to electoral rolls and vote-counting.

The opposition parties, non-governmental organisations and the people themselves have complained that thousands and thousands of eligible voters, a large majority of them are opposition voters, have been prevented from registering to vote or have been deleted from the voting lists just before the election. Half way on the election day, the opposition leader, Mr. Sam Rainsy, held a press conference to declare electoral irregularities when he claimed that more than 200,000 legible voters in Meanchey district of Phnom Penh were not allowed to vote because their names had been deleted from the electoral rolls. If Sam Rains’y claim is true, and those 200,000 people came forward, then this is a serious blow to the credibility of the election.

What should surprise many people is the premature claim of victory by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Just less than two hours after the polling stations closed Mr. Khieu Kanharith, the CPP spokesperson, claimed that his party had won the election by gaining at extra 8 seats. This means that the CPP will win the 2/3 majority of 81 seats, exactly the numbers of seats that Chea Sim and Hun Sen had predicted nearly a year ago that the CPP will win. Mr. Chea Sim’s and Mr. Hun Sen’s prediction was so accurate, even more accurate than Nostradamus’s prediction, the famed French astrologer.

The premature claim of victory by the CPP has a sinister connotation. It was a psychological war and was designed to divert the attention of the electoral observers in order to whitewash the electoral fraud, irregularities and vote-rigging. But to many seasoned observers of the Cambodian elections, this premature declaration of a victory by the CPP should ring the alarm bell- that there might be a hidden agenda behind it. No one will doubt the CPP’s victory this time, but many people should doubt the CPP’s claims of a majority of 81 seats.

Up to this moment, many NGO’s had claimed that the CPP had just won 70 seats and the Sam Rainsy Party had won 50 seats. Mr. Yim Sovan, the MP from the Sam Rainsy Party, had claimed just 40 seats for his party.

Let’s hope that at the end of today, the trends would go the way the NGO’s claim, and not the CPP’s claim. If the CPP’s claim is to be believed, it would be a travesty of democracy in Cambodia. And I hope, whoever won the election, it should not affect the Siem Reap Talk today with Thailand to resolve the Thai occupation of the Preah Vihear's so-called "disputed zone".