August 28, 2008
FAILURE IN THE ELECTION COMPLAINT RESOLUTION PROCESS SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE WHOLE ELECTION PROCESS The way electoral complaints are handled or mishandled is an integral part of the election process that international observers are supposed to monitor. There was only one international observer left today in Cambodia. He was from the European Union Election Observation Mission. Today was the final day of the complaint resolution process following Voting Day of July 27. None of the opposition's numerous complaints has been properly dealt with. Over the last four weeks following Voting Day, both the National Election Committee (NEC) and the Constitutional Council (CC) have dismissed all the opposition's requests for re-vote or vote recount in spite of irrefutable evidence of massive fraud. <http://tinyurl.com/4eegak> http://tinyurl.com/4eegak This failure in the election complaint resolution process says a lot about the whole election process. The following is an excerpt from letters that the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party have just written to signatories of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia. The letter to France's President of the Republic is in French <http://tinyurl.com/56b3xl> http://tinyurl.com/56b3xl The letter to Indonesia's President of the Republic is in English <http://tinyurl.com/6ka6x4> http://tinyurl.com/6ka6x4 France and Indonesia were co-chairs of the Paris International Conference on Cambodia which led to the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements on October 23, 1991. "An acceptable resolution of a number of our electoral complaints should be through the holding of a re-vote or, at least, a vote recount in a limited number of constituencies (provinces or municipalities) where the opposition has come very close to winning one additional parliamentary seat according to figures provided by the NEC. However, the NEC, which is both judge and judged, has rejected practically all our complaints. Even the most important ones were only "examined" behind closed doors and very quickly dismissed as "groundless". As of today, the NEC has not allowed a single vote recount, let alone a re-vote, even when first reports of ballot counting from a given polling station conflict with each other and some of these reports seem to have been doctored. When the opposition submits a complaint with some evidence raising some doubt, why doesn't the NEC accept to jointly with the plaintiffs recount the ballots from any given ballot box from any given polling station so as to dissipate any doubt? Are they afraid that a vote recount even for a single ballot box from a single polling station - there are 15, 254 polling stations nationwide - could reveal anomalies/irregularities that are indicative of broader fraud commune-wide, province-wide and nationwide? The Constitutional Council, which is another CPP-controlled institution acting as a kind of Supreme Court, has so far upheld all the NEC's decisions to dismiss the opposition's complaints and requests. There is apparently no other reasons for the two institutions for not allowing any vote recount than the fear to see the CPP's "landslide victory" evaporate following proper verifications." SAM RAINSY PARTY HUMAN RIGHTS PARTY --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
