The CPP on Tuesday called for the people responsible for producing an audio recording purporting to be Prime Minister Hun Sen admitting in private that his party lost the July 28 national election to be caught and punished.
The recording, which first appeared on Facebook and was broadcast by Radio Free Asia on Sunday, appears to match an excerpt from a speech made by Mr. Hun Sen on May 16 in Prey Veng province.
Contrary to preliminary figures from the CPP and the National Election Committee that show the CPP winning the election with 68 seats, Mr. Hun Sen is heard giving what appears to be an admission of defeat.
“The CPP has lost the election already. This is clearly learned by the CPP’s leaders, yet at the junior level that is still not clear,” the audio tape of Mr. Hun Sen’s voice says.
“I would like to clarify to the CPP’s lower level that it hasn’t yet realized that it has lost the election. This I would like to explain to all activists to disseminate.”
But with many people apparently fooled into thinking that the recording shows the CPP and the NEC have lied about the result, the CPP on Tuesday clarified that it came from a speech Mr. Hun Sen made before the election.
The CPP said in a statement that the recording had been edited and was “posted in order to confuse the public and cause instability in society.”
“This is the illegal action that some crooked group has caused endless problems with when the Cambodian people need peace to carry out their work as usual,” the statement says, calling on authorities to investigate and take action against the perpetrators.
De facto CPP spokesman Cheam Yeap said Tuesday that the excerpt was taken from a May speech at a pagoda in Prey Veng’s Mesang district, and was actually part of a quote that Mr. Hun Sen read out from CNRP candidate Prince Sisowath Thomico.
“It was fabricated from the reality,” Mr. Yeap said.
In the May speech, Mr. Hun Sen quoted at length from comments made by Prince Thomico on May 10 in Kratie province, in which the former assistant to late King Father Norodom Sihanouk claimed the CPP had already lost the election, based on his analysis of the results of the June 2012 commune elections.
“I would like to read the whole extracted text,” Mr. Hun Sen told his audience in May, before citing Prince Thomico.
“‘The answer is there’s a saying that they want peace and development, but the development should be provided to the lower level as well,’” Mr. Hun Sen said, suggesting that the commune election showing for the CPP meant that there were plenty of voters who do not support the ruling party and would give the opposition victory.
“‘The CPP has got 3.5 million voters, so the CNRP will get 6 million. The CPP has lost the election already,’” he continued.
In Mr. Hun Sen’s speech, he went on to counter Prince Thomico’s point, saying that even the two merged opposition parties’ votes in the commune election were not enough to beat the CPP.
Incriminating audio clips were used by the CPP itself in the run-up to the election, with the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit posting a number of clips of opposition leaders making apparent faux pas.
Some involved CNRP vice president Kem Sokha and president Sam Rainsy taking verbal shots at each other in speeches before their two parties—the Human Rights Party and the Sam Rainsy Party—merged last year to put up a united opposition to the CPP.
One featured Mr. Sokha claiming that, following their overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, the Vietnamese had falsified evidence of crimes at the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh.
Although Mr. Sokha denied making the comments and accused the CPP of doctoring the tapes, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summonsed him for questioning after the comments drew complaints of defamation from survivors of the notorious prison.
Mr. Sokha has ignored court summonses over the case, which is one of three cases that were brought against him in the run-up to the election.
