battambang town – The rain broke early Sunday morning, and voters hit the polls by the muddy masses.
By the 3 pm deadline, the provincial election committee declared the day a grand success.
“Every polling station worked. I can say that 80 percent of the voters voted. No threats. No intimidation,” committee chief Ham Mony said late Sunday afternoon.
But not everyone seemed comfortable with a process whose predecessors have brought violence and instability. A random exit poll taken at six voting stations in town showed “I dare not to say” to be Battambang’s victor with 30 votes.
Nine claimed the CPP, and nine claimed the Sam Rainsy Party. Funcinpec got four votes, while one elderly woman said she was not sure for whom she had just voted.
And not all of those who opted to keep their choice secret were necessarily opposition voters. Sor Kim Phro, 38, initially held back, saying only, “Who I love, I vote for.” But the Hun Sen watch she was nervously fingering gave her away.
For the most part, voters said they had neither encountered nor heard of election law violations. But some who lined up at the Wat Kompeng voting station more than an hour before the polls opened at 7 am went home angry.
Provincial committee officials there decided the people needed to vote in the order their names appeared on the voters’ rolls, rather than who had arrived first and stood in line the longest.
“I came early this morning. I was first in line and then they tell us to get in order,” said a disgusted Yen Lom, 35. “I’m almost sick.”
Thirty-five-year-old Nhem Nakry, after protesting to officials, decided she couldn’t take it anymore. “I’ve decided to leave because I’ve been here since 6 am. But I don’t get to vote first; their relatives get to vote first.”
Eang Chhay Eang, the Sam Rainsy Party’s top candidate in the province, said that the provincial committee and commune election committee officials were simply making a nuisance of themselves to drive off non-CPP voters.
About 15 angry people were seen leaving Wat Kompeng without voting. Ham Mony said it was simply a matter of too many people arriving at once.
During the reshuffling of the line, a fight nearly broke out, with a provincial committee official taking a few slaps to the shoulder from an angry woman.
Funcinpec’s No 1 candidate for the province, Nhiek Bun Chhay, and Battambang First Deputy Governor San Heab took that opportunity to slip into the station ahead of the pack. Nhiek Bun Chhay emerged after voting minutes later to pronounce the election “not good” and to denounce CPP trickery.
