Friday, September 6, 2013
NEC Issues White Paper On General Election
Cambodia (Kohker) – The National Election Committee released
a White Paper on the 2013 General Election of the National Assembly Members
yesterday evening.
The book which contains 90 pages including English and Khmer
texts describes in detail the establishment of the NEC, the election process,
election observers, political party agents, election complaints and statements of
foreign leaders on the July 28 election in Cambodia, etc. The following is the
full text of an Executive Summary of the White Paper:
On 28 July 2013, the general election for the 5th mandate of Cambodia’s National Assembly was held in 19,009 polling stations nationwide.
This is the eleventh national and sub-national election to be organized by the National Election Committee (NEC).
For this 2013 Election, the NEC initially accredited 99,481 agents from political parties, including the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) (19,009 agents and 19,013 reserve agents); the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) (18,012 agents and 17,514 reserve agents); and FUNCINPEC (14,839 agents and 10,044 reserve agents).
The NEC also accredited 9,931 observers from the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and 4,780 observers from the Human Rights Party (HRP), added to the 40,142 accredited national election observers from 35 associations and organizations, including the election monitoring NGO, COMFREL, which had observers present at each polling station.
The NEC also accredited 292 international election observers from 35 international organizations, embassies and countries.
Among them were distinguished dignitaries such as the former five-term Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, a former Vice President of Indonesia, former Deputy Prime Ministers of Canada and the Republic of Korea, a Senator from Pakistan, Chairmen of the Election Commission of the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, election commissioners from Malaysia, Laos and Russia, and the Director of Community Affairs Development of the ASEAN Secretariat.
NO INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS REPORT SERIOUS MISCONDUCT
None of the international observers reported having witnessed any serious misconduct of the election on voting day, and virtually all the teams issued statements expressing satisfaction with the free and fair conduct of Cambodia’s 2013 general election and its peaceful atmosphere during the press conference held at the Phnom Penh Hotel on 28 July 2013 and in written statements and reports.
Voting was held to elect 123 members of the National Assembly representing 24 capital/provinces in 19,009 voting stations staffed by 114,054 polling workers.
The preliminary results provided by the NEC and broadcast through the national television channel, TVK, on the evening of the polling and counting day reported the totals cast in each commune.
The provisional results announced by NEC on 12 August gave the national totals for each party, with the CPP having received 3,235,969 votes and the CNRP having received 2,946,176 votes.
The CPP announced its own calculations, by which the CPP had won 68 seats and the CNRP 55 seats – somewhat similar to an announcement made by COMFREL (CPP 67 and CNRP 56).
By contrast, the CNRP announced that it had won 63 seats and the CPP 60 seats.
If these claims had been based on the original forms provided by the chief of every polling station, which every one of CPP and CNRP’s agents as well as COMFREL observers had received from each polling station, the results should not have differed.
CHARGES OF 'IRREGULARITIES' LACK EVIDENCE
Despite the elaborate system of procedures, cross-checks, and consolidation, with opportunities for filing complaints and appeals at all levels (where evidence can be presented and examined), a number of charges of “irregularities” have been disseminated through the media, public speeches, letters to the NEC or by rumours, without evidence to be validated and to be weighed.
This White Paper provides a detailed account of the procedures to be followed at each stage of the election process, together with actual figures from the 2013 Election, as well as an outline of both official complaints filed and unofficial charges regarding compiling the Voter List and allegations of “irregularities” concerning the election campaign, voting and counting day and the provisional results.
REGISTRATION AND VOTER LIST
Witnessed by thousands of Cambodian and international observers, the process of Voter List revision and voter registration took place over four months in late 2012. Political parties were entitled to have observers present throughout the process; however the SRP and HRP both decided not to participate.
Before the new Voter List became official, the preliminary Voter List had been posted publicly in each commune/sangkat, so that any inaccuracies or mistakes could be corrected.
Throughout the entire country, only 37 complaints were received either objecting to the inclusion of names on the voter list or asking for inclusion of a name that had been removed or rejected.
However, two separate surveys by local and international NGOs reported finding a number of discrepancies.It is notable that some of their results differed substantially from each other, one survey finding that 97.7% of the respondents claimed to have registered to vote, while the comparable figure in the other survey was 82.9%.
The former survey found that the names of 13.5% of those interviewed who claimed to be registered voters could not be found on the Voter List.
This figure was extrapolated to suggest that there were 1.25 million “missing voters” across the country, as has been widely reported in the media.
SURVEY ORGANIZATIONS REFUSE TO PROVIDE DETAILS
Regrettably, the survey organizations refused to provide the NEC with any details that would permit a thorough check for the missing names in the Voter List.
By way of contrast, after a similar survey during the 2008 national election, the NEC was provided with 88 names that the survey organizers said could not be found on the Voter List, and the NEC was able to account for all of them, including 15 who were in fact on the list and 31 who had moved to a different commune since they had registered.
In Cambodia neither voting nor registering to vote are compulsory.
In every democratic country with the same electoral approach, there are significant numbers of people who do not register or vote although they are eligible to do so.
The fact that this also occurs in Cambodia should not be assumed to be evidence of a faulty registration procedure. Cambodia’s voter turnout (69.61% in 2013) is high compared to other countries without compulsory voting obligation, such as in the Philippines (60.7% in 2013), in India (58.19% in 2009) and in the United States of America (41.59% in 2010).
COMPLAINTS DURING CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION PERIOD
For the period covering the election campaign, the Commune Election Commissions received a total of 373 complaints.
In regard to the polling day, they received 281 complaints. In addition, there were 5 complaints regarding the “white day”, the day before the election, when campaigning is not permitted.
This is a total of 660 complaints concerning the conduct of a month-long process in 1,633 communes/sangkat. That is, from the opening of the campaign until the conclusion of the vote-counting, on average a commune experienced 0.4 of an alleged irregularity.
Among 281 election day complaints, the four most numerous related to voter harassment and disturbance, accounting for almost half of the total, including: disturbing the polling process (49); intimidating voters (30); preventing voters from casting their votes (28); and recording names, taking photos or questioning voters at the polling stations (24).
Most of the above complaints did not provide sufficient evidence to justify upholding them at the original or appeal level.
However, 25 people were sanctioned as a result of these complaints.
In addition to the formal complaints filed and resolved, other unofficial charges would appear to involve allegations that voting figures had been falsified in some fashion.
TRANSPARENT AND DETAILED PROCEDURES
It is, therefore, important to note there were very transparent and detailed procedures for counting and recording the votes in the presence of witnesses, including agents from all the contesting parties.
A similarly transparent and verifiable process was involved at every stage of consolidating the votes.
At every stage of this process at every polling station, agents from all contesting parties were present and signed the relevant documents to indicate that the correct procedure had been followed, and that the vote count, including the votes recorded as gained by each party, are correct.
Observers were also present throughout to witness the process.
There was no instance in which any party agent present for the procedure at any of the 19,009 polling stations did not sign the relevant documents.
MISTAKES IN SOME INSTANCES
When the records from four provinces were verified by the NEC, as ordered by the Constitutional Council, it was found that mistakes had occurred in some instances.
Due to carelessness by the officials at the polling stations, some Safety Packages A were not sealed.
However, they were all correctly placed inside Package B, and later inside Package C and then inside Package D, all of which were then packaged in the presence of political parties’ agents and observers.
Furthermore, in very few cases were there any discrepancies between the vote totals recorded and copied onto the different forms in the package.
And, after cross-checking with the primary data (including the tally sheets posted on the wall of the polling station on which the votes were recorded at the time of counting), in no case did such discrepancies result in a change in the votes received by each party.
An expert observer of the process, Professor Shiro Harada from the University of Tokyo, referred to “careless mistakes... but I could not see any clear evidence of manipulation against the CNRP.” (Phnom Penh Post, 29 August 2013, Page 2)
INDELIBLE INK USED IN SIX OTHER COUNTRIES AS WELL AS INDIA
Another allegation, also presented in the media rather than to the electoral authorities, claimed that the indelible ink used to mark voters’ fingers and thus prevent multiple voting could be easily washed off.
The ink used was provided as electoral assistance by the government of India. It is widely used in at least six other countries as well as India.
Since the announcement of the provisional results, a number of presidents, prime ministers and other political leaders from different countries have also expressed their positive assessments of the process and congratulations on the results.
UN, US AND EU EXPRESS SATISFACTION WITH CONDUCT OF ELECTION
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, the State Department of the United States of America, the European Union and others expressed their satisfaction on the conduct of the election.
Those statements encouraged all political parties to settle their differences peacefully, and to investigate any irregularities that may have occurred before and during the election.
The EU expressed its hope that “any dispute addressed to the NEC and the established judicial mechanisms will be dealt with fairly and swiftly.”
These established judicial mechanisms are the NEC and the Constitutional Council, which have been discharging their mandated duties to deal with all complaints made by all political parties and individuals in accordance with the Law on Election of Members of the National Assembly (LEMNA) and in a fair and transparent manner.
Decisions have been made, including sanctions where appropriate for any infringement of laws or procedures.
The process is now nearing completion, leading up to official announcement of the election results by the NEC, scheduled for the coming 8 September.
As such, the call to establish a new mechanism such as a “Joint Committee” or “Special Committee” would not only be outside the deadline, but also outside the framework of the Constitution, LEMNA and the Regulations and Procedures of the NEC, which leave the entire electoral process and any dispute that may arise in the hands of the NEC and the Constitutional Council.
KING ISSUES TWO ROYAL MESSAGES
Furthermore, His Majesty the King has issued two Royal Messages in relation to the situation surrounding the election results appealing to the two parties to continue dialogue to solve disputes or remaining problems peacefully.
In his statement on 30 August 2013, His Majesty the King proclaimed that “The Kingdom of Cambodia is an independent and sovereign state with its own Constitution as its supreme law, which all Cambodian people respect.
“Resolution of any national affairs should be based on the Constitution and handed to the competent institutions mandated by the Constitution and the laws of the nation.”
This is the eleventh national and sub-national election to be organized by the National Election Committee (NEC).
For this 2013 Election, the NEC initially accredited 99,481 agents from political parties, including the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) (19,009 agents and 19,013 reserve agents); the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) (18,012 agents and 17,514 reserve agents); and FUNCINPEC (14,839 agents and 10,044 reserve agents).
The NEC also accredited 9,931 observers from the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and 4,780 observers from the Human Rights Party (HRP), added to the 40,142 accredited national election observers from 35 associations and organizations, including the election monitoring NGO, COMFREL, which had observers present at each polling station.
The NEC also accredited 292 international election observers from 35 international organizations, embassies and countries.
Among them were distinguished dignitaries such as the former five-term Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, a former Vice President of Indonesia, former Deputy Prime Ministers of Canada and the Republic of Korea, a Senator from Pakistan, Chairmen of the Election Commission of the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, election commissioners from Malaysia, Laos and Russia, and the Director of Community Affairs Development of the ASEAN Secretariat.
NO INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS REPORT SERIOUS MISCONDUCT
None of the international observers reported having witnessed any serious misconduct of the election on voting day, and virtually all the teams issued statements expressing satisfaction with the free and fair conduct of Cambodia’s 2013 general election and its peaceful atmosphere during the press conference held at the Phnom Penh Hotel on 28 July 2013 and in written statements and reports.
Voting was held to elect 123 members of the National Assembly representing 24 capital/provinces in 19,009 voting stations staffed by 114,054 polling workers.
The preliminary results provided by the NEC and broadcast through the national television channel, TVK, on the evening of the polling and counting day reported the totals cast in each commune.
The provisional results announced by NEC on 12 August gave the national totals for each party, with the CPP having received 3,235,969 votes and the CNRP having received 2,946,176 votes.
The CPP announced its own calculations, by which the CPP had won 68 seats and the CNRP 55 seats – somewhat similar to an announcement made by COMFREL (CPP 67 and CNRP 56).
By contrast, the CNRP announced that it had won 63 seats and the CPP 60 seats.
If these claims had been based on the original forms provided by the chief of every polling station, which every one of CPP and CNRP’s agents as well as COMFREL observers had received from each polling station, the results should not have differed.
CHARGES OF 'IRREGULARITIES' LACK EVIDENCE
Despite the elaborate system of procedures, cross-checks, and consolidation, with opportunities for filing complaints and appeals at all levels (where evidence can be presented and examined), a number of charges of “irregularities” have been disseminated through the media, public speeches, letters to the NEC or by rumours, without evidence to be validated and to be weighed.
This White Paper provides a detailed account of the procedures to be followed at each stage of the election process, together with actual figures from the 2013 Election, as well as an outline of both official complaints filed and unofficial charges regarding compiling the Voter List and allegations of “irregularities” concerning the election campaign, voting and counting day and the provisional results.
REGISTRATION AND VOTER LIST
Witnessed by thousands of Cambodian and international observers, the process of Voter List revision and voter registration took place over four months in late 2012. Political parties were entitled to have observers present throughout the process; however the SRP and HRP both decided not to participate.
Before the new Voter List became official, the preliminary Voter List had been posted publicly in each commune/sangkat, so that any inaccuracies or mistakes could be corrected.
Throughout the entire country, only 37 complaints were received either objecting to the inclusion of names on the voter list or asking for inclusion of a name that had been removed or rejected.
However, two separate surveys by local and international NGOs reported finding a number of discrepancies.It is notable that some of their results differed substantially from each other, one survey finding that 97.7% of the respondents claimed to have registered to vote, while the comparable figure in the other survey was 82.9%.
The former survey found that the names of 13.5% of those interviewed who claimed to be registered voters could not be found on the Voter List.
This figure was extrapolated to suggest that there were 1.25 million “missing voters” across the country, as has been widely reported in the media.
SURVEY ORGANIZATIONS REFUSE TO PROVIDE DETAILS
Regrettably, the survey organizations refused to provide the NEC with any details that would permit a thorough check for the missing names in the Voter List.
By way of contrast, after a similar survey during the 2008 national election, the NEC was provided with 88 names that the survey organizers said could not be found on the Voter List, and the NEC was able to account for all of them, including 15 who were in fact on the list and 31 who had moved to a different commune since they had registered.
In Cambodia neither voting nor registering to vote are compulsory.
In every democratic country with the same electoral approach, there are significant numbers of people who do not register or vote although they are eligible to do so.
The fact that this also occurs in Cambodia should not be assumed to be evidence of a faulty registration procedure. Cambodia’s voter turnout (69.61% in 2013) is high compared to other countries without compulsory voting obligation, such as in the Philippines (60.7% in 2013), in India (58.19% in 2009) and in the United States of America (41.59% in 2010).
COMPLAINTS DURING CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION PERIOD
For the period covering the election campaign, the Commune Election Commissions received a total of 373 complaints.
In regard to the polling day, they received 281 complaints. In addition, there were 5 complaints regarding the “white day”, the day before the election, when campaigning is not permitted.
This is a total of 660 complaints concerning the conduct of a month-long process in 1,633 communes/sangkat. That is, from the opening of the campaign until the conclusion of the vote-counting, on average a commune experienced 0.4 of an alleged irregularity.
Among 281 election day complaints, the four most numerous related to voter harassment and disturbance, accounting for almost half of the total, including: disturbing the polling process (49); intimidating voters (30); preventing voters from casting their votes (28); and recording names, taking photos or questioning voters at the polling stations (24).
Most of the above complaints did not provide sufficient evidence to justify upholding them at the original or appeal level.
However, 25 people were sanctioned as a result of these complaints.
In addition to the formal complaints filed and resolved, other unofficial charges would appear to involve allegations that voting figures had been falsified in some fashion.
TRANSPARENT AND DETAILED PROCEDURES
It is, therefore, important to note there were very transparent and detailed procedures for counting and recording the votes in the presence of witnesses, including agents from all the contesting parties.
A similarly transparent and verifiable process was involved at every stage of consolidating the votes.
At every stage of this process at every polling station, agents from all contesting parties were present and signed the relevant documents to indicate that the correct procedure had been followed, and that the vote count, including the votes recorded as gained by each party, are correct.
Observers were also present throughout to witness the process.
There was no instance in which any party agent present for the procedure at any of the 19,009 polling stations did not sign the relevant documents.
MISTAKES IN SOME INSTANCES
When the records from four provinces were verified by the NEC, as ordered by the Constitutional Council, it was found that mistakes had occurred in some instances.
Due to carelessness by the officials at the polling stations, some Safety Packages A were not sealed.
However, they were all correctly placed inside Package B, and later inside Package C and then inside Package D, all of which were then packaged in the presence of political parties’ agents and observers.
Furthermore, in very few cases were there any discrepancies between the vote totals recorded and copied onto the different forms in the package.
And, after cross-checking with the primary data (including the tally sheets posted on the wall of the polling station on which the votes were recorded at the time of counting), in no case did such discrepancies result in a change in the votes received by each party.
An expert observer of the process, Professor Shiro Harada from the University of Tokyo, referred to “careless mistakes... but I could not see any clear evidence of manipulation against the CNRP.” (Phnom Penh Post, 29 August 2013, Page 2)
INDELIBLE INK USED IN SIX OTHER COUNTRIES AS WELL AS INDIA
Another allegation, also presented in the media rather than to the electoral authorities, claimed that the indelible ink used to mark voters’ fingers and thus prevent multiple voting could be easily washed off.
The ink used was provided as electoral assistance by the government of India. It is widely used in at least six other countries as well as India.
Since the announcement of the provisional results, a number of presidents, prime ministers and other political leaders from different countries have also expressed their positive assessments of the process and congratulations on the results.
UN, US AND EU EXPRESS SATISFACTION WITH CONDUCT OF ELECTION
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, the State Department of the United States of America, the European Union and others expressed their satisfaction on the conduct of the election.
Those statements encouraged all political parties to settle their differences peacefully, and to investigate any irregularities that may have occurred before and during the election.
The EU expressed its hope that “any dispute addressed to the NEC and the established judicial mechanisms will be dealt with fairly and swiftly.”
These established judicial mechanisms are the NEC and the Constitutional Council, which have been discharging their mandated duties to deal with all complaints made by all political parties and individuals in accordance with the Law on Election of Members of the National Assembly (LEMNA) and in a fair and transparent manner.
Decisions have been made, including sanctions where appropriate for any infringement of laws or procedures.
The process is now nearing completion, leading up to official announcement of the election results by the NEC, scheduled for the coming 8 September.
As such, the call to establish a new mechanism such as a “Joint Committee” or “Special Committee” would not only be outside the deadline, but also outside the framework of the Constitution, LEMNA and the Regulations and Procedures of the NEC, which leave the entire electoral process and any dispute that may arise in the hands of the NEC and the Constitutional Council.
KING ISSUES TWO ROYAL MESSAGES
Furthermore, His Majesty the King has issued two Royal Messages in relation to the situation surrounding the election results appealing to the two parties to continue dialogue to solve disputes or remaining problems peacefully.
In his statement on 30 August 2013, His Majesty the King proclaimed that “The Kingdom of Cambodia is an independent and sovereign state with its own Constitution as its supreme law, which all Cambodian people respect.
“Resolution of any national affairs should be based on the Constitution and handed to the competent institutions mandated by the Constitution and the laws of the nation.”
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