Massive Electoral Fraud Throughout the Country

By ខែ្មរវឌ្ឍនកម្ម

       After a long month of excited but fearful election campaign, an unofficial result produced a very sad and disappointed news for Khmer inside and outside the country. The incumbent CPP which has ruled the country over 30 years with systematic network of intimidation and corruption still won the election. while the newly formed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNPR) lost to a narrow margin. Most people has confidence that if this election was held in a free and fair atmosphere, the CNPR would win with landslide.        
    In a long calm and curious election day, people took in a long line to cast their ballots in hope of a great change will happen in the upcoming day. But in the late evening day, the CPP proclaimed their election victory with 68 seats to 55 seats for the opposition the CNRP. Many opposition supporters broke into tear in disbelief when an unofficial result was heard. This election result has reflected the massive fraud throughout the country such as deletion the name of the voters, double names, ghost list, the movement of Vietnamese, military, and government officials to vote in different places, and vote buying by the CPP.



    For example, in Phnom Penh many people did not find their names at the polling stations and protested with the election officials and turned against the police who intervened by burning down two police vehicles. Those people accused the authorities of helping Vietnamese to vote while they are Khmer did not have name to vote, about 1.2 million voters were unable to vote. In opposite, there are about 200,000 duplicate names. This is a painful situation for all Khmer in the country. However, in many polling stations, people lost their faith with authority and took the matter into their own hands by preventing the Vietnamese from voting. In Battambang, the opposition helped to prevent many truckloads of Vietnamese from voting. this is part of a systematic networks set up by the ruling party to cheat the vote. In the other story of fraud, people lined up to get money from the CPP's officials after they voted for them. Numerous election frauds by the CPP were witnessed by youtubes, facebook and the other media around the world.
 
   As the systematic election frauds  have been practised in the past as well as the current one by the CPP, we must learn from this bitter lesson and demand a serous inquiry into this matter in order to prevent it from happening again in the future. To win the election with dignity, Prime Minister Hun Sen must play a fair game with his opponents otherwise all his election victory will  be meaningless and greeted with protest rather than congratulation notes that used to be received by many new elected leaders around the world.