A total of 6.34 million Cambodians are registered to cast their votes in the July

27 general election. The National Election Committee (NEC) issued its final voters

list on April 27 showing that just under 94 percent of the eligible population has

registered.

The chairman of the NEC, Im Suosdey, told a gathering of Provincial Election Committee

officials at the Ministry of Interior that the exercise had proved successful.

"The number of voters this year has increased when compared to 2002," he

told the officials at the end of a three-day training session. "The achievement

of a voter registration close to 94 percent is attributable to hard work from all

of us."

Suosdey said the figure was commendable, despite the fact that it was slightly below

the rate of 98 percent attained in 1998. He pointed out that it was better than the

February 2002 commune elections when 83 percent signed up.

Although the NEC expressed its satisfaction with the list, the US-based International

Republican Institute (IRI) said it was concerned the body had ruled against numerous

complaints of violations of the electoral law.

Among the examples it gave were that people below the legal voting age of 18 were

allowed to register, non-citizens had registered, and commune clerks had applied

the registration requirements inconsistently.

The IRI conducted a series of pre-election assessments between April 23 and 28 in

the capital and seven provinces. It expressed fears that widespread intimidation

at the local level had already begun. That coincided with concerns voiced by several

political parties and human rights groups that intimidation and vote buying - common

occurrences in previous elections - have started.

"Voters have received threats from village chiefs and local authorities that

retaining their jobs or their land is linked to their support for [the ruling Cambodian

People's Party]," the IRI wrote.

The election monitor called on the government and the NEC to alleviate fears about

both the political environment and the administration of the election in the two

months that remain before campaigning begins on June 26. It stated that recent high-profile

assassinations, murders, attempted murders and serious assaults would undermine political

participation at all levels.

Koul Panha, the executive director of Comfrel, an election monitoring NGO, said his

organization would audit the official voters list to ensure it was acceptable to

all stakeholders. The four-week process will begin at the end of this month, when

Comfrel receives the official list from the NEC.

"At the moment we have no comment to make about whether the voters list is transparent

or not," he said. "But if the audit finds the list is substantially different

[from reality], then the upcoming election will suffer."

Panha said Comfrel was ready to send 400 statistics experts to communes where there

were suspicions that irregularities had taken place. He added that agents of political

parties had complained of 94 cases in which around 10,000 people were unable to register.

All of those complaints were rejected by the NEC.

ï Yet another opposition legislator has left the party for Funcinpec. Sam Sundoeun,

who was the Sam Rainsy Party's MP for Kandal province, told the media on May 7 that

the SRP was undemocratic.

The opposition leader shrugged of the latest in a series of tit-for-tat defections,

saying Sundoeun was unhappy that he had not garnered the candidacy he wanted.

 

Breakdown of potential and registered

voters by province and municipality for 2003 election

 

 

 

 

 

Province/

Of voting

Number

Percent

Polling

Municipality

age

registered

registered

stations

 

 

 

 

 

Banteay Meanchey

347,803

307,811

88.50

664

Batta mbang

490,482

416,763

84.97

896

Kampong Cham

927,376

884,476

95.37

1,858

Kampong Chhnang

228,296

222,276

97.36

459

Kampong Speu

344,860

339,583

98.47

638

Kampong Thom

328,919

300,588

91.39

643

Kampot

293,585

277,507

94.52

544

Kandal

666,567

636,936

95.55

1,180

Koh Kong

70,414

63,777

90.57

147

Kratie

156,771

134,491

85.79

292

Mondolkiri

21,362

18,642

87.27

57

Phnom Penh

594,651

579,205

97.40

984

Preah Vihear

65,754

65,115

99.03

141

Prey Veng

601,489

548,480

91.19

1,127

Pursat

191,281

185,759

97.11

391

Ratanakkiri

54,650

51,969

95.09

117

Siem Reap

388,332

349,697

90.05

732

Sihanoukville

89,158

80,499

90.29

163

Stung Treng

45,064

43,285

96.05

100

Svay Rieng

289,347

278,808

96.36

571

Takeo

452,950

458,877

101.31

904

Kep

16,044

16,926

105.50

33

Pailin

22,375

22,934

102.50

43

Oddar Meanchey

62,346

57,430

92.11

142

 

 

 

 

 

Total

6,749,876

6,341,834

93.95

12,826

 

 

 

 

 

Source: NEC, 27 April 2003.