[Demographic Vietnamization: Elections] CNRP Claims Voter Fraud

The NEC is more than a month into voter registration. KT/Mai Vireak

CNRP Claims Voter Fraud

Khmer Times } 26 October 2016

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) will file a complaint with the National Election Committee (NEC) this week, alleging that more than 2,000 Vietnamese migrants have illegally registered to vote.
 

According to party spokesperson Yim Sovann, the alleged registrations took place across southern Cambodia.
 

“We found that some of them lack many documents, they can’t speak Khmer or don’t speak it clearly,” he said. “It’s okay if they don’t speak it clearly, but if they can’t speak Khmer and then claim they are Cambodian, it’s illegal.
 

“Normally, to be a citizen there must be a decree signed by the king to decide for citizenship or naturalization.”
 

Meng Sopheary, the CNRP’s head of election monitoring, said the cases in question happened in Phnom Penh and in Svay Rieng, Tbong Khmum, Kandal and Kampot provinces.
 

“We will file a complaint with the NEC to delete those names if they are illegal immigrants and have not yet become Cambodian citizens through the appropriate procedures,” she said.
 

“We will complain to get access to lists at voter registration offices and we will evaluate about some people to make further complaints to the court,” she said.
 

Ms. Sopheary noted that such complaints and applications have been made by the party in previous registration drives.
 

NEC spokesperson Hang Puthea said the NEC welcomed any complaint relating to irregularities during voter registration as they want to ensure that election results are accepted by everyone.
 

“When we receive the complaint the NEC will cooperate with related institutions, including the Interior Ministry, which issues national identification cards in order to solve any problems.”
 

Mr. Puthea added that since the new voter registration process started last month, the NEC had already received a complaint from the CNRP, accusing 600 immigrants of lacking sufficient official documents to show they are Cambodinan citizens.
 

Koul Panha, president of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), said he had received many reports of people holding national ID cards, but not citizenship, who have attempted to register to vote, but said it is difficult to check as there is little transparancy in the identification system.

“We cannot know the size of the problem that may affect the electoral process, but we know that there is a problem. We don’t have the ability to control or check clearly because in order to review those who are not Cambodian citizens and have national identity, we need to cooperate with the authorities, but the authorities are not willing to cooperate with us to check on the problem.”
 

Mr. Panha warned that failure to address complaints of voter fraud would likely lead to conflict between political parties if the upcoming election results are disputed.
 

The voter registration drive started on September 1 and is due to finish on November 29. More than 1,600 registration offices have been set up in communes across the country.
 

As of yesterday, more than 6.3 million people have registered to vote from more than 9.6 million eligible voters.