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Report cites election day voter fraud

Voter rolls at several polling stations appear to have been “intentionally manipulated” in advance of the election to allow large groups of individuals to cast fraudulent ballots in communes where they were ineligible, according to a report released Saturday by rights group Licadho.

One of the incidents cited describes hundreds of university students being transported from Phnom Penh to Kandal’s Lvea Em district to vote, allegedly under the instruction of their professors, as one example of systematic voter fraud.

Another observed incident in hotly contested Kandal involved more than 100 workers from a rock quarry in Kampong Speu who were brought to a newly created polling station in Sa’ang district to vote despite not having residence there, Licadho says.

The quarry is allegedly owned by a ruling party official from Sa’ang Phnom commune.

According to the report, more than 30 per cent of names on the voter list at the new Sa’ang polling station were duplicates, compared with a nationwide rate of two per cent.

“We were expecting significant issues with the voter rolls, especially in light of earlier reports of ghost voters, drastic over-registrations and the like, but the indications of vote rigging we saw went beyond that,” Licadho director Naly Pilorge said in a statement.

“The observations detailed in this report unequivocally demonstrate the need for further in-depth investigations and additional procedures before the vote results can be finalised.”

Tep Nytha, secretary-general at the National Election Committee, said the NEC had received the report but that, whether it had evidence of malfeasance or not, “the NEC will not investigate”.

“It is their right to say what they see. The NEC receives those reports to look into which points could be useful to make changes for the next election, so we accept them. For points that we can’t accept, we just archive them,” he said.

Koul Panha, director of election watchdog Comfrel, said Licadho’s findings were “very consistent” with that of other civil society groups.

He stopped short, however, of saying such premeditated vote-rigging was widespread.

“It proves that it happened in some communes [where] there were problems of intentional manipulation, but we want to do further investigation to know the scale of the problem.”

The report also cites military units being trucked in from their bases in Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear provinces to vote en masse in newly created polling stations in Siem Reap’s Varin district.

Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday that the transportation of voters to polling stations where they are registered is fully legal.

“I just want to inform [people] that wherever you vote, you must have [identification] for elections that the NEC will allow you to vote with, and wherever you find your name, you have the right to vote there,” he said.

“For example, if a man works as a construction worker and has no time to go back to his homeland, he might register his name in the area where he works so he can vote.”

According to the Election Law, a Cambodian citizen must “have a residence” in the commune where they are going to vote.

Sin Khandy, the rector of Chenla University – the institution accused of bringing Phnom Penh students to vote in Kandal province – could not be reached for comment.

Khandy is an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Environment, and the university, as noted by Licadho, has previously posted photos of students taking part in a protest against deputy CNRP leader Kem Sokha on its official Facebook page.

Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman Yim Sovann welcomed the report yesterday. “[The report] reflects the reality and reflects the problems that we encountered during the election. It also adds to [our claim] that we should find justice for the people,” he said.

The report cites an election day conflict that erupted between CNRP and CPP observers in Prey Veng’s Reathor commune after opposition supporters blocked more than 400 individuals “who could not speak Khmer and appeared to be of Vietnamese ethnicity” from voting.

Although the number of temporary Identification Certificate for Election (ICE) forms issued in the commune was found to be more than 30 per cent, Licadho still calls for an investigation into the “potentially improper disenfranchisement of eligible voters based on ethnic discrimination”.

“We advise our supporters and our members not to do anything against the law and not to create violence.… We must not discriminate against anybody if they live in Cambodia legally and they have the right to vote,” Sovann said.

CNRP Mr. Sam Rainsy Conference Press 26/08/2013

CNRP Says Rally’s Size Could Exceed Government’s Demands

With a major opposition rally planned for this afternoon in Phnom Penh, City Hall and Ministry of Interior officials were at odds with CNRP leaders on Sunday over how many people would be allowed to attend the event.

Though the Interior Ministry has said only 6,000 people will be allowed into Freedom Park, the opposition said it could not guarantee how many people would attend the event to listen to CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha.

CNRP president Sam Rainsy meets supporters in Siem Reap on Sunday. (George Nickels)

“It is impossible to follow what the Ministry of Interior says,” CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said Sunday. “But we can keep our word that there will be no demonstrations tomorrow and we can keep our word on the time by ending the rally by 6 [p.m.] or 6:30 [p.m.]”

“It is difficult to predict how many people will join. Unlike a communist regime, where they send a letter of invitation and force people to come, we are democrats and in free society. We cannot tell you how many people will come to a rally,” he added.

However, City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said Sunday that the CNRP had agreed to demands to limit the crowd size, though he did not know how they would be enforced.

“We requested that [the CNRP] have only 5,000 people for the rally, and they agreed and said they will limit the number of their supporters. I don’t know anything else,” Mr. Dimanche said.

Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, who announced on Friday that the CNRP’s rally must be kept to less than 6,000 people, said Sunday, when asked how authorities would control crowd size, that the line of questioning was ill-intentioned.

“Your question doesn’t have good intentions. Do you want to see a crackdown or what?” he said.

Over the weekend, CNRP president Sam Rainsy and vice president Kem Sokha toured the country holding rallies that have drawn sizeable crowds in Kandal, Kompong Cham and Siem Reap provinces.

In videos posted to their Facebook accounts, their main message has been one of appreciation for voters who supported them in the July 28 election, which they claim to have won despite contradictory results from the National Election Committee showing a CPP victory.

The last time that the opposition leaders addressed a crowd in Phnom Penh was on August 6, when about 5,000 people showed up to attend a rally. However, as opposed to today’s rally, which has been promoted over the radio and on Facebook for the past week, that rally received little hype.

Freedom Park, where Mr. Rainsy and Mr. Sokha are set to arrive at 4 p.m. today, was quiet and desolated Sunday, save a few groups of car salesman sitting in the shade of trees with their vehicles parked along the surrounding streets.

One of the salesmen, Keo Sothy, 38, said that he did not expect today’s rally to get out of hand as the leaders were simply testing their supporters’ mood before deciding how to move forward as they try to break the political impasse with the ruling CPP.

“They are coming here to test…the feelings of their supporters. I don’t believe that there will be any sort of violence because our politicians and people now have more knowledge about how to solve problems peacefully,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Colin Meyn)

Source: The Cambodia Daily

Our victory is because of your heroism

Prime Minister-elect Sam Rainsy: Our victory is because of your heroism. And this heroism will rescue our nation in this year.

លទ្ធផល នៃជ័យជំនះ របស់យើងនេះ បានកើតឡើង ដោយវីរភាព របស់ បងប្អូន កូនក្មួយ ទាំងអស់។  ដូច្នេះ វីរភាព នេះហើយ នឹងត្រូវ សង្រ្គោះជាតិយើង ក្នុងឆ្នាំ ២០១៣នេះ។

(វីដេអូនេះ នៅវត្ត ស្លែង ក្នុងឃុំ ជីក្រែង, ស្រុក ជីក្រែង, ខេត្តសៀមរាប)

Mr. Sam Rainsy Victory Over Hun Sen

We need to we fight for the truth. Cambodians need CNRP, need Sam Rainsy. 

We love Sam Rainsy

 Cambodian Electoral fraud 2013. Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha appeals all Cambodian communities around the world to join Mass Rally - call for US/UN's help to find justice and fair election in Cambodia, and avoid bloodshed in Cambodia again. Now, the current government is pouring tanks, machine guns into the main city, Phnom Penh.

Sam Rainsy's television interview with ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 22 August 2013.

Mr. Sam Rainsy Speech at Montreal, CNRP Cambodia Election 2013

Mr. Sam Rainsy Amasses Support Ahead of Monday’s Rally

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Friday visited vendors in Phnom Penh’s Olympic and Russian markets and appealed to voters disgruntled by preliminary election results awarding a victory to the CPP to join a planned opposition rally at Freedom Park on Monday.

As he toured both markets, Mr. Rainsy embraced his supporters as the animated crowds offered him gifts of flowers and jockeyed to take photographs and videos of the opposition leader.

Opposition party president Sam Rainsy visits shoppers and vendors at Phnom Penh’s Olympic Market on Friday in an attempt to generate support ahead of a large CNRP rally scheduled for Monday at Freedom Park. (Siv Channa)

“I am very happy and excited to meet with the vendors today because they have a special relationship with me—we are like siblings,” said Mr. Rainsy, who walked around the crowded markets unencumbered by any po­lice or security guards.

Speaking to reporters at Rus­sian Market, the second of the two markets he visited during the course of the morning, Mr. Rainsy reiterated his party’s stance that CNRP lawmakers will not sit in the National Assembly until a solution to the impasse over allegations of irregularities during the July 28 national election is reached.

“When we have justice for the people and earn their trust by not allowing [the CPP] to defraud voters and have an election victory that people accept—at that time we will join the meeting of the Na­tional Assembly,” he said.

Mr. Rainsy also told vendors that he hoped they would support his party’s attempts to bring transparency to the election by joining a rally at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh on Monday, though he continued to underline that the event should not be considered a demonstration against the election results, but rather an opportunity to inform supporters of the country’s current political situation.

“I hope that a lot of people will join in the gathering—but this is a rally, not a demonstration,” he said.

With the CNRP expecting at least 10,000 people to turn out for the rally, authorities have been engaged in a counter-campaign to discourage people from taking part, with a visible security buildup and ominous rhetoric seeking to frighten supporters and keep them from participating.

Authorities even circulated petitions at Phnom Penh markets asking people to support preliminary results showing a win for the CPP and promising not to join any demonstration called by the opposition.

Vendors, motorcycle taxi and cyclo drivers around O’Russei Market reported that market staff had gone around Monday intimidating people into giving their thumbprint, while NGOs said that several other communes around the city also complained of feeling pressured into endorsing similar petitions.

But on Friday, the vendors at Olympic and Russian markets expressed optimism that Mr. Rainsy and his party could help bring an end to the current political stalemate.

“I support Mr. Rainsy and he comes to the market to visit us,” said a 56-year-old market vendor, who gave her name only as Ms. Long for fear of reprisals.

“People believe that the Cambodia National Rescue Party had an election victory, but we don’t know why it was changed like this,” she added.

A 28-year-old pork vendor at Russian Market, who declined to give his name, said that he hoped Mr. Rainsy could become prime minister because he would bring more prosperity to his business.

“I think that he is a good leader for Cambodia and I hope that he will help our vendors to sell more and more goods,” he said.

CNRP officials met on Friday with Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong to discuss final security arrangements for Monday’s rally, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

After the meeting Mr. Socheat­vong said he had passed on the opposition party’s requests to the Interior Ministry with the stipulation that the rally finish by 6 p.m.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak said that he had received the request and had added some further rules ahead of the rally.

“We agree on three points: The gathering has to finish at 6 p.m., we will only allow 6,000 people to join and people from the provinces are not allowed to join in,” he said.

“We don’t allow them to march down the roads and the CNRP must have their own security guards to keep the gathering in place and cooperate with our forces outside,” Lt. Gen. Sopheak said, declining to say what measures would be taken if more than 6,000 people turn up to Monday’s rally.

CNRP lawmaker Mu Sochua said it would be difficult to moderate the number of people coming to the rally.

“If people come, people come. How do you stop them? All I know is there will be a lot of people,” she said.

Military police spokesman Brigadier General Kheng Tito said this week that any attempt to disturb security at the rally would not be tolerated and security forces were fully equipped to quash any violence.

Source: The Cambodia Daily.

Cambodia Prime Minister-elect Sam Rainsy's Interview with ABC (Australia)

Sam Rainsy's television interview with ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 22 August 2013.

Mr. Sam Rainsy Interview with RFI 21/08/2013

ntetrview M Sam Rainsy by Radio France Internationale (RFI) 21/08/2013 about Failure politic enter CPP & CNRP... M.Sam Rainsy wants CPP be optimistic. About China support CPP etc

Power of Youth Voice

 Cambodian Electoral fraud 2013. Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha appeals all Cambodian communities around the world to join Mass Rally - call for US/UN's help to find justice and fair election in Cambodia, and avoid bloodshed in Cambodia again. Now, the current government is pouring tanks, machine guns into the main city, Phnom Penh.

Mr Sam Rainsy President of CNRP with Khmer Australia

Mr Sam Rainsy on VOA

Conference of CNRP by Mr Sam Rainsy

Conference of CNRP by Mr Sam Rainsy

Cambodia’s Highest Court Begins Review of Election Complaints

National Election Committee officials check ballot counts at the commitee's offices in Phnom Penh on Aug. 3, 2013.

Cambodia’s highest court on Tuesday dismissed several opposition complaints of widespread irregularities in recent national elections as it began a review of disputed poll results showing a victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party.

The Constitutional Council, which has up to 20 days to announce decisions on 33 complaints, is the final arbiter of the legitimacy of preliminary results from the National Election Committee (NEC) contested by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

The CNRP claims it has had its victory snatched away due to ballot irregularities and has threatened to launch mass demonstrations if its complaints are not dealt with.

The Constitutional Council dismissed all of the complaints it considered in its first session on Tuesday, upholding an earlier decision by the NEC rejecting several complaints of irregularities in central Kampong Chhnang province.

A statement by the court’s president Ek Sam Ol issued after the hearing said the Constitutional Council dismissed the allegations because it had determined the NEC’s decision was in line with the law.

Process 'not transparent'

The CNRP rejected the verdict, saying the hearing was not transparent as it was held behind closed doors.

“The CNRP cannot accept the decision because the process is not transparent,” Ros Sou, the CNRP’s official for Kampong Chhnang told RFA’s Khmer Service after the hearing.

Koul Panha, director of local polls watchdog the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), urged the Constitutional Court to open the remaining meetings to the public.

“There is no good explanation to the public about why there wasn’t a public hearing,” he told RFA.

The Constitutional Council has received 33 complaints and so far has completed investigating 14 of them.

Of the 19 complaints for which review is underway, nine involve challenges to the NEC’s vote counts, while others concern issues including campaign malfeasance and voter rolls and registration.

CNRP representatives have been called to answer questions before the court on complaints in Prey Veng and Kompong Thom provinces, indicating decisions on those cases will be announced next, CNRP official Eng Chhay Eng told RFA.

Preliminary results by the NEC support the CPP claim that it has won 68 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, against 55 for the CNRP.

The CNRP, which has called for a U.N.-backed investigation into the polls, maintains it won at least 63 seats and says that the CPP and NEC colluded to deny about one million votes for the CNRP.

CNRP's Son Chhay (l) and the CPP's Prum Sokha (r) speak to reporters after talksheld at the National Assembly building, Aug. 20, 2013. Photo credit: RFA.

Disagreements over the results of the July 28 election could mean political deadlock on the formation of a new government.

Talks between the two parties over the past weeks aimed at forming a joint committee to investigate the polls have not made any breakthroughs, with a two-hour meeting Tuesday night producing little results, officials who attended said afterwards.

“Even though we met three times and our meeting hasn’t produced any breakthrough yet, the results from this meeting will be reviewed by the parties’ leaders in order to seek possibilities for negotiating in the future,” Minister of the Interior Prum Sokha, chief of the CPP working group on talks with the CNRP, told reporters at the National Assembly building.

The CNRP’s threats to launch mass demonstrations have sparked fears that the deadlock could end in political violence, after the government responded by deploying troops and armored vehicles in the capital Phnom Penh earlier this month.

On Tuesday a court in the city released on bail four people who were arrested last week in connection with a demonstration in which two of them planned to hand out flowers to military personnel stationed in the capital.

Tut Chanpanha and Sok Dalin were charged with “incitement to felony” after they planned to hand out the flowers in a bid to promote peace, while Hiv Borin and print shop owner Lim Lypaeng face charges in connection with producing allegedly inciting stickers that authorities said were linked to the protest.

After Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Seng Neang granted the bail, the four were transported from Prey Sar prison to the office of local rights group Licadho, which has been working with the defendants.

Speaking to RFA after arriving at Licadho, Tut Chanpanha denied the charges against him.

“I didn’t commit any crime,” he said.

Am Sam Ath, Licadho senior investigator, urged the court to drop all charges against the four.

“The release on bail has limited [their] freedom because they are being watched by the court,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Sam Rainsy's return jolts Cambodian election to life, even if strongman Hun Sen expected to win

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy Photo: AP

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's newly pardoned opposition leader Sam Rainsy returned from exile to a rapturous welcome in Phnom Penh on Friday, reinvigorating an election campaign that strongman prime minister Hun Sen was set to win in a landslide.

"I missed you all...let's go forward together," Mr Rainsy, 64, said as his ecstatic supporters pushed to greet him at the gates of the city's airport.

Rainsy's exclusion from the election would call into question the legitimacy of Cambodia's democratic process 

Tens of thousands of supporters waving party flags lined the road for kilometres from the airport in a strong show of support for the French-educated former banker who fled the country almost four years ago to escape criminal charges he says were politically motivated.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen gestures after casting his ballot in local elections at Ta Khmau town, in Kandal province, some 15 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photo: AP

"This is a special day for Cambodia...we need Sam Rainsy to take the fight to Hun Sen," said supporter Path Phalla, 42.

Nine days before nine million Cambodians go to the polls Mr Rainsy began campaigning immediately, speaking at a rally in the city and preparing to leave for a tour of 15 provinces opposition parties believe they can win at the election.

Mr Hun Sen requested the pardon which was granted last week by King Norodom Sihamoni after United States lawmakers threatened to cut more than US$70 million in annual US aid if the elections were unfair.

Cambodian opposition leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy (centre right) and Kem Sokha (centre left) Vice president of the CNRP greet their supporters along a street in Phnom Penh. Photo: AFP

The US State Department had also warned that Mr Rainsy's exclusion from the election would call into question the legitimacy of Cambodia's democratic process.

But senior government officials in Phnom Penh denied the decision was due to international pressure, saying it was Mr Hun Sen's commitment towards national unification and fair and democratic elections.

Throughout his almost 28 year rule of the country the wily 61 year-old Mr Hen Sen has often brutally crushed his political opponents but made conciliatory gestures towards them at the last minute.

Mr Rainsy had declared he was returning from exile to campaign for his party before the election even if he was to be arrested and jailed, setting the stage for a showdown with Mr Hun Sen, the man he accuses of masterminding a 1997 grenade attack at an opposition rally in Phnom Penh.

During his three decade-long political career Mr Rainsy has survived assassination attempts, criminal convictions and defamation lawsuits.

But the former finance minister who was expelled from the royalist Funcinpec party in 1995 for not toeing the party line has his share of critics who accuse him of being autocratic and fuelling distrust of neighbouring Vietnam to boost his political support.

In 2009 he helped villages uproot posts demarcating the border between the two countries and accused Mr Hun Sen's government of allowing Vietnam to encroach on Cambodia's land.

The stunt outraged authorities in Vietnam, which invaded the country in 1978, but was applauded by his supporters and many Cambodians who fear Vietnamese encroachment.

Mr Rainsy, who is often sharp-tongued in his rhetoric, spent his teenage years in France and made a career in the financial world before returning to Cambodia as it struggled to recover from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule in the late 1970s.

He fled Cambodia for exile in France in late 2009 shortly before he was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for moving Vietnamese border markers, seven years for spreading false information about the border with Vietnam and two years for defaming Foreign Minister Hor Namhong by associating him with the Khmer Rouge.

Since then his Sam Rainsy Party has merged with the Human Rights Party to forge the Cambodian National Rescue Party that holds a combined 29 seas in the 123-seat national parliament.

While Mr Rainsy will be free to campaign it seems unlikely last minute efforts by his lawyers to allow him to contest a seat will succeed.

The deadline for registration of candidates has closed and Mr Rainsy's name was removed from the electoral register before he received his pardon.

Analysts say Mr Rainsy's party is likely to win more seats in parliament, perhaps enough to remove Mr Hun Sen's two-thirds majority that enables his party to change the constitution.

Many of the Cambodia's younger voters are disenchanted by land grabbing, corruption and a culture of impunity for the politically well connected.

In a country which has more mobile telephones than people, social media has emerged to be influential in politics, particularly because the media is controlled by the government.

But Mr Hun Sen's hold on power appears unassailable.

He won the last two elections by a landslide amid allegations of fraud and election irregularities.

In May Mr Hun Sen, one of the Asia's long-serving leaders, said he intended staying in power for another decade until he is 74. Since taking power in January 1985, the one-time Khmer Rouge cadre has been allowed to consolidate his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) rule so that he controls almost all levers of power including the police, military, courts and bureaucracy. Independent political analyst Chea Vannath said while voters, especially those from poor rural areas, may admire Mr Rainsy they find it hard to identify with him given his background.

"Rainsy had better opportunities to pursue his education while Hun Sen stopped studying to join the liberation movement in the 1970s," she said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sam-rainsys-return-jolts-cambodian-election-to-life-even-if-strongman-hun-sen-expected-to-win-20130719-2q8xb.html#ixzz2cbGUP3vn

Cambodia Election: Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy Disputes Results ' Hun Sen Is Afraid Of Me'

Cambodia Election: Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy Disputes Results -- 'Prime Minister Hun Sen Is Afraid Of Me' (VIDEO)

Days after Cambodia's government claimed victory in its bid for reelection, opposition leader Sam Rainsy expressed dissatisfaction with what he described as the "disenfranchisement of a large portion of the electorate" in the country's recent election.

Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, told HuffPost Live on Tuesday that the CNRP saw huge gains in the vote, nearly doubling its presence in parliament by claiming 55 seats. The Cambodian People's Party and Prime Minister Hun Sen won 68 seats out of 123, a fall from the 90 it formerly controlled.

The CNRP claims that the CPP distorted election results through voter fraud, removing names from electoral rolls and limiting the opposition's access to the public by tightly controlling media.

Sam Rainsy's assessment of the situation is simple: "Outgoing Prime Minister Hun Sen is afraid of me and he does not want to have a fight with me."

When host Ahmed Shibab-Eldin asked why Hun Sen might fear the opposition, Rainsy replied that the winds of change in Cambodia are in the CNRP's favor.

"I am the only real challenger to him, and my party has enjoyed growing popular support while his party, a former communist party that has been in power for 30 years, has now encountered more and more popular resistance," Rainsy said. "Because of human rights abuses, people are more and more unhappy with the ruling party."

He added that he deeply values the young people of Cambodia who have taken to social media to make their voices heard despite the ruling party's grasp on the country's media.

"There are many similarities between the youth in Cambodia and the youth in the Arab world," Rainsy said. "The youth are very dissatisfied with the regime. They are unemployed. They are frustrated. They want the end of corruption. They want total justice. It is a long way to go."