The CPP and the National Election Committee on Thursday denied accusations made in a statement by SRP parliamentarians claiming that the ruling party will attempt to commit fraud during Sunday’s national election.
The SRP statement said the CPP will attempt to interfere in the following three ways: CPP village chiefs will conspire with polling station chiefs to make it difficult for those identified as non-CPP voters to cast their ballot; the CPP will bribe observers to not report indiscretions or commit fraud themselves; and the CPP will cause delays so that election officials will be forced to count the ballots at night, thus making it difficult for monitors to observe the count.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay said by telephone Thursday that the accusations made in the statement were based on discrepancies observed during the 2003 election, as well as last year’s commune election, and from information provided by provincial election committee officials.
CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap denied that his party would commit any form of fraud Sunday and accused the SRP of making false accusations as an excuse for their impending defeat.
“In every election…the SRP always collects garbage to make evidence to deny the election result,” he said. “The CPP does not need to bribe others because we have 5 million members.”
Cheam Yeap added that the SRP has officials based in every election committee and at every polling station.
“So who can cheat them, unless the SRP representatives are blind and dumb during the counting of the votes?” he said.
NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said the SRP accusations were false and accused the SRP of trying to drum up attention before the election.
“We deny the statement,” he said. “They always blame the worst results on fraud.”
