US Observer Urges More Must be Done
As expected, the National Election Committee rejected about 300 remaining complaints Tuesday, ending its “historic” role in the first Cambodian-organized elections of the post-Khmer Rouge era.
Now, parties have 48 hours to file complaints with the Constitutional Council, the final arbiter of election-related disputes. Final vote results are expected Aug 29.
The complaints, which included 110 voter intimidation allegations and 172 recount demands, had survived preliminary investigation. But after a day-long meeting, the NEC ruled that none deserved an official hearing.
In all, the NEC wound up recounting ballots in 10 communes. The panel has only released results from seven of those communes.
The committee also addressed complaints from some observer groups who alleged that the number of voters exceeded the number of registered at some polling stations. The panel found that the voter turnout was less than the number of registered voters at 92 polling stations studied.
Samraing Kamsan, spokesman for NEC Chairman Chheng Phon, concluded at a press conference that the NEC found no pattern of fraud as alleged by losing parties. As evidence, he pointed in part to recounting that yielded just minor “discrepancies.”
But he acknowledged that inexperience, a short time frame and tired officials had resulted in many technical errors during the electoral process.
“I would like to emphasize that technical errors by the NEC do exist,” Samraing Kamsan said, adding that the electoral body was prepared to receive “constructive criticism” designed to help it avoid such mistakes in the elections five years from now.
While the NEC action was expected, an official with a US observer group said it was troubling nonetheless.
“I think there are a lot of unanswered questions that must be answered for people to have confidence in the process,” said Tim Johnson of the International Republican Institute. “But the NEC is probably happy to wash their hands of it at this point.”
Johnson said one of the big unanswered questions is whether the NEC legally approved in late May a revised formula to allocate National Assembly seats.
Under the formula, the CPP wins 64 seats, or an absolute majority in the 122-seat parliament. Under the first formula, the CPP would have won only 59 seats and the National United Front led by Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party would have won the majority.
Political experts say that the second formula is democratic, but less representative of the will of the people. For example, in Kompong Chhnang, the CPP stands to get three of four seats despite winning less than 47 percent of the popular vote.
Johnson said even the minor discrepancies found during the vote recounting is bothersome. He noted that if those discrepancies are added up commune by commune, they could be enough to change the outcome in certain provinces such as Kompong Thom.
In all, the NEC got more than 800 complaints. Most were dismissed as repetitious or lacking merit.
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the NEC decided to terminate its work, the Sam Rainsy Party criticized the committee for discarding hundreds of opposition complaints.
“If the NEC, which made the original mistake of restricting the number of observers allowed to watch the counting, had ever successfully investigated the many serious complaints it received during the electoral process, it might have more credibility now,” the statement said.
“But the ruling party has been permitted to break nearly every rule in the electoral law without consequence, from bribery to murder.”
The Sam Rainsy Party, for example, argued that “spot recounts” should have been conducted to put to rest the suspicion that the contents of improperly sealed ballot bags could be altered before the official recounts took place.
The statement called on the NEC’s failure to resolve complaints as “one more in a long list of failures designed to deprive the opposition of the victory it won despite all odds.”
Funcinpec officials weren’t immediately available for comment Tuesday evening. But Prince Norodom Ranariddh has complained previously about pre-election intimidation, alleged widespread irregularities during vote counting and about the revised formula for the allocation of Assembly seats.
He and Sam Rainsy both have called on the international community to apply pressure, but diplomats contacted Tuesday seemed more willing to let the internal legal process run its course.
Final election results now are scheduled to be announced Aug 29, Samraing Kamsan said.
CPP officials have said previously that it is natural for the losers of any election to cry foul, but that it is up to them to prove a pattern of fraud.
