Four Main Parties Reject 'Sham' Election
Parties called on the international community and the Cambodian public to denounce "rigged" voting Sunday. (28 July 2008)
Representatives from four non-ruling parties gathered atopposition headquarters Monday to reject Sunday's national election as "asham," after the ruling Cambodian People's Party appeared to have wonenough seats to form a single-party government. Top officials of the Sam Rainsy, Human Rights, NorodomRanariddh and Funcinpec parties signed a letter calling on "Cambodianpublic opinion and the international community not to recognize the results ofthe July 27, 2008, elections, which were manipulated and rigged by the rulingCambodian People's Party." There have not been five separate parties elected to theNational Assembly since the 1993 Untac elections, and the joining together offour against one is unprecedented. In 1998, the Sam Rainsy and Funcinpec parties joinedtogether to protest election results in the wake of the 1997 coup. That three-month crisis of government led to massdemonstrations in the capital and a brutal crackdown by government forces,where scores of demonstrators were disappeared and presumed killed. In 2003, the government was deadlocked for 11 months, due toan alliance between Funcinpec and SRP that prevented a coalition government. "We have already strengthened together to deny theresults of the election, and also for the voters," opposition leader SamRainsy told a large crowd gathered at his headquarters Monday afternoon."We need to revote across Cambodia." "We appeal to the EU and the international community todeny the results, because there are so many irregularities during theelection," Human Rights Party Presdient Kem Sokha told the same cheeringcrowd. The parties "hope in the future will have an alliancetogether" and have the same goals, he said. The main point for the alliance would be to send a messageto the people "who love justice" to come to work together. The four parties condemned "illegal and fraudulentpractices" in Sunday's polls, including "deletion of countlesslegitimate voters' names and [an] artificial increase in the CPP voters to casttheir ballots for the CPP." The parties also condemned "the tricks and maneuvers ofthe National Election Committee, which is only a tool for the CPP to organize asham election and present a façade of democracy." "I'm not surprised about this information," NECChairman Im Sousdeytold reportersMonday. "We always see after the election Cambodian political parties doingthe same thing." Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Monday unofficialresults now showed the CPP with 90 seats, followed by the Sam Rainsy Party with26, Human Rights Party with three, Norodom Ranariddh with two, and Funcinpecwith two. Khieu Thai Sarakmony, a 57-year-old from Phnom Penh who joined the crowd at SRPheadquarters Monday, said he supported the cooperation of the four parties for the people. "But it should have been earlier," he said, "beforethe election."