No Re-Vote Likely: Election Official

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
29 July 2008

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The Cambodian People's Party apparent election sweep will not likely be contested by a second round of voting, despite calls from the opposition party and others that the election was tainted, an election official said Monday.

"There is not a possibility of having a re-vote unless you have particular evidence to prove irregularities," Heu Rong, head of the National Election Committee's operations department, said, as a guest on "Hello VOA."

Four main parties have alleged irregularities in nearly every province, including the omission of thousands of voter names from registries, intimidation and vote-rigging.

"Voters' names were deleted, and names were missing from the list," said Mar Sophal, monitoring chief for the Committee for Free and Fair Elections. "Right now we can't evaluate the election process. We'll wait and see if the NEC tackles the issues, such as complaints from parties, first."

Heu Rong said the NEC was investigating the allegations, but they had not received official complaints yet at the national level. Some complaints may still be held at the commune or provincial levels, he added.

COMFREL Unveils Irregularities in National Election Process

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
24 August 2007

Poll preparations have been plagued with irregularities that could lead to discouraged voters and a skewed national election next year, the independent monitor group COMFREL said Thursday.

The Committee for Free and Fair Elections said it had found that village chiefs and commune council members were not following instructions to post voter lists for public review to ensure that those who want to vote know they are eligible.

In a survey of 165 of Cambodia's 1,621 communes, Comfrel found 28 with some type of irregularity, according to a report published on the group's Web site Thursday.

As many as 550,000 names could be deleted from voter lists, which are an essential part of the election process at the village level, as Cambodia prepares for national parliamentary elections next year, opposition leader Sam Rainsy has said.

People who had aliases were at risk of becoming ineligible, Comfrel said, along with those who traveled to other areas for work.

The majority of irregularities was found in Kampong Cham and Kampong Thom provinces and consistently affected supporters of the Sam Rainsy, Norodom Ranariddh and Funcinpec parties, according to the report.

These complications could discourage potential voters and affect the free and fair status of the elections, Comfrel Executive Director Koul Panha said.

In commune elections this year, only 65 percent of eligible voters turned out, a considerably lower number than in other elections, and political opponents of the ruling Cambodian People's Party cite this as proof of election tampering.

The National Election Committee has said voter lists will be posted until Oct. 20, so that people have a chance to rectify discrepancies, but opponents have said this puts an unfair burden on the people.