The preliminary NEC results are being disputed

Cambodge Soir

12-08-2008

Several parties have filed a complaint against the election results. If the committee doesn’t follow suit, the case will be brought in front of the Constitutional Council.

On Saturday 9th of August, the National Election Committee (NEC) has delivered its preliminary results concerning the July elections. The committee’s regulations stipulate that the political parties have 72 hours to challenge them. The SRP, the HRP and the NRP, threatening to boycott the parliamentary opening, have already filed a complaint against these results.

On the more than 6 million validated ballot papers, the CPP has, well ahead of its competitors, obtained 3.5 million votes, or in other words 58% of the valid votes.

The SRP, first opposition party, has merely obtained 1.3 million votes (22% of the valid votes). Far behind, the HRP obtained almost 400,000 votes while Funcinpec and the NRP are almost equal with 303,000 and 337,000 votes respectively.

Amongst the winners, Chea Sim, president of the CPP, declared not surprisingly that: “These results reflect the true will of the people and all parties which participated in the ballot should accept them.”

A point of view not shared by several opposition parties, in particular the SRP. On several occasions, Sam Rainsy has brought up the cases of fraud which he says amount to approximately two million votes and deprived the opposition of numerous seats.

In a press release of last Friday, the SRP deputies have recalculated the election results according to their estimates and their outcome is considerably different than the NEC’s. The CPP would in this way only obtain 77 seats, compared to 90 according to the NEC. The SRP would gain 9 supplementary seats; with 35 compared to the 26 from the official calculations. Finally, the NRP and Funcinpec would each keep their two deputies.

Concerning the future developments; the NEC has to study the complaints filed by the parties within 48 hours. After that the plaintiffs will receive another 72 hours in order to appeal the case before the Constitutional Council.