June 1, 2012
ELECTION OBSERVERS MUST OBSERVE ONGOING ELECTION TRICKS BEFORE VOTING DAY
In my May 30 statement titled “Preventing the CPP from distorting the
people’s will”, I elaborated on the two main tricks used by the ruling
party to manipulate elections including the June 1 commune elections:
Disenfranchisement and Impersonation (see text below).
Based on past experience and recommendations from opposition
grassroots activists throughout the country, I have suggested
practical measures to counter the impersonation voter fraud scheme
that is being implemented by the CPP with the complicity of the biased
National Election Committee (NEC).
Because the NEC refuses to examine any transparency-based measure as
the ones I legitimately suggested, the situation is getting out of
control with regards to the issuing by CPP local authorities of
controversial voter identification documents whose official name is
“Identification Document” or “Statement of Identity”, which is the new
version of “Form 1018” decried in 2008 by the Election Observation
Mission from the European Union..
The corresponding impersonation voter fraud scheme allows the CPP to
secure a landslide election victory before Election Day in those
communes where “Statements of Identity” are being fraudulently issued
to illegitimate voters on an unprecedented scale.
On Election Day, there is no need for any election observer to observe
anything in any polling station in any commune where the CPP has been
implementing its impersonation voter fraud scheme many days before
Election Day: There is no point in observing a forgone conclusion
unfold.
Excerpt from an authoritative election report published in 2008 by a
group of researchers from Princeton University (USA): “The CPP uses a
variety of tactics to illegitimately define who can and cannot
participate in the electoral process. This reflects the CPP’s shift in
focus from manipulation on Election Day to manipulation in the months
leading up to Election Day. By enfranchising illegitimate but loyal
CPP supporters and disenfranchising opposition supporters, the CPP can
influence electoral outcomes in advance. http://tinyurl.com/79ueagx
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
Leader of the Opposition
May 30, 2012
PREVENTING THE CPP FROM DISTORTING THE PEOPLE’S WILL AT NEXT SUNDAY’S
COMMUNE ELECTIONS
As a general pattern the ruling CPP has two combined ways to
manipulate elections so as to secure a landslide victory before Voting
Day: Disenfranchisement and Impersonation.
I- SYSTEMATIC DISENFRANCHISEMENT TO REDUCE VOTES FOR THE OPPOSITION
There is a massive disenfranchisement affecting citizens that
CPP-affiliated village chiefs and other local officials throughout the
country have identified as non-CPP supporters or potential opposition
voters. Based on political reports from CPP grassroots agents, the
CPP-controlled National Election Committee (NEC) establishes voter
lists in such a way as to exclude as many opposition voters as
possible. According to independent observers from COMFREL (Committee
for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia), up to 1.5 million Cambodians
representing 17 percent of the electorate will lose their right to
vote in the upcoming commune elections due to irregularities in
voters’ registration lists (*).
II- SYSTEMATIC IMPERSONATION TO INFLATE VOTES FOR THE RULING PARTY
At the same time that countless real citizens and legitimate voters
are excluded from voters’ registration lists (see Point I related to
disenfranchisement), the NEC slyly keeps countless ghost voters’ names
in voter lists in order to allow illegitimate voters paid or
manipulated by the CPP to cast votes through impersonation with the
use of controversial voter identification documents fraudulently
issued by CPP local officials who control the country. According to
independent observers, ghost voters represent up to 10 percent of
registered voters in many polling stations. The controversial voter
identification documents are a new version of “Form 1018” now called
“Identification Document” with similar characteristics as “Form 1018”
that easily allow fraud (**).
Moreover, with more and more CPP-affiliated state employees being
encouraged to register as voters more than once at different places
(see evidence presented by the opposition SRP at their May 29 press
conference) and also with the increasing number of migrant workers who
will not be able to vote at the place where they were originally
registered as voters, the CPP will be in a position to make use of a
larger number of ghost voters’ names for impersonation through
illegally issued voter “Identification Documents”, thus allowing them
to bring a larger number of illegitimate voters into polling stations
on Voting Day. Those illegitimate voters will be fraudulently given
the names and voting rights of ghost voters to inflate votes for the
CPP.
There are three transparency-based measures that could prevent the
implementation of the CPP impersonation voter fraud scheme:
1- Before Voting Day, all CPP commune chiefs assisted by CPP-appointed
commune clerks must issue a public report giving detailed information
on voter “Identification Documents” they have issued in their
respective communes purportedly for voters who don’t have any other ID
documents.
2- On Voting Day, a copy of all officially and legally issued voter
“Identification Documents” to be used by a limited number of voters at
each polling station, must be posted at the corresponding polling
station, thus allowing election observers to detect any voter
fraudulently issued with “Identification Documents”.
3- On Voting Day, all remaining blank and unused forms of voter
“Identification Documents” as well as the commune stamp validating any
official documents, must be locked in a place that can be seen by
everybody, thus ensuring that no voter “Identification Document” could
be issued on Voting Day, as prohibited in election regulations (***).
If the CPP and the NEC are not willing to implement the three above
measures they are confirming that they want to proceed with their plan
to manipulate elections and distort the people’s will.
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
Leader of the Opposition
(*) Please read reports from The Cambodia Daily
http://tinyurl.com/7fedv8e and Radio Free Asia
http://tinyurl.com/899t9f7
(**) In their final report the Election Observation Mission from the
European Union asked the Cambodian government to abolish the use of
“Form 1018”, which they claimed was fraudulently issued at polling
stations during the last national elections in July 2008
http://tinyurl.com/crr9jrt
(***) The use of “Form 1018” and its new version “Identification
Document” is essential in the implementation of the CPP impersonation
voter fraud scheme. This explains why the CPP-led government has shown
no willingness to issue standardized National ID Cards to all
citizens. Once all citizens have in their possession the same National
ID Card, all “Forms 1018” and other controversial voter
“Identification Documents” would disappear and the CPP would not be
able to manipulate elections on such a large scale as now.
ELECTION OBSERVERS MUST OBSERVE ONGOING ELECTION TRICKS BEFORE VOTING DAY
In my May 30 statement titled “Preventing the CPP from distorting the
people’s will”, I elaborated on the two main tricks used by the ruling
party to manipulate elections including the June 1 commune elections:
Disenfranchisement and Impersonation (see text below).
Based on past experience and recommendations from opposition
grassroots activists throughout the country, I have suggested
practical measures to counter the impersonation voter fraud scheme
that is being implemented by the CPP with the complicity of the biased
National Election Committee (NEC).
Because the NEC refuses to examine any transparency-based measure as
the ones I legitimately suggested, the situation is getting out of
control with regards to the issuing by CPP local authorities of
controversial voter identification documents whose official name is
“Identification Document” or “Statement of Identity”, which is the new
version of “Form 1018” decried in 2008 by the Election Observation
Mission from the European Union..
The corresponding impersonation voter fraud scheme allows the CPP to
secure a landslide election victory before Election Day in those
communes where “Statements of Identity” are being fraudulently issued
to illegitimate voters on an unprecedented scale.
On Election Day, there is no need for any election observer to observe
anything in any polling station in any commune where the CPP has been
implementing its impersonation voter fraud scheme many days before
Election Day: There is no point in observing a forgone conclusion
unfold.
Excerpt from an authoritative election report published in 2008 by a
group of researchers from Princeton University (USA): “The CPP uses a
variety of tactics to illegitimately define who can and cannot
participate in the electoral process. This reflects the CPP’s shift in
focus from manipulation on Election Day to manipulation in the months
leading up to Election Day. By enfranchising illegitimate but loyal
CPP supporters and disenfranchising opposition supporters, the CPP can
influence electoral outcomes in advance. http://tinyurl.com/79ueagx
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
Leader of the Opposition
May 30, 2012
PREVENTING THE CPP FROM DISTORTING THE PEOPLE’S WILL AT NEXT SUNDAY’S
COMMUNE ELECTIONS
As a general pattern the ruling CPP has two combined ways to
manipulate elections so as to secure a landslide victory before Voting
Day: Disenfranchisement and Impersonation.
I- SYSTEMATIC DISENFRANCHISEMENT TO REDUCE VOTES FOR THE OPPOSITION
There is a massive disenfranchisement affecting citizens that
CPP-affiliated village chiefs and other local officials throughout the
country have identified as non-CPP supporters or potential opposition
voters. Based on political reports from CPP grassroots agents, the
CPP-controlled National Election Committee (NEC) establishes voter
lists in such a way as to exclude as many opposition voters as
possible. According to independent observers from COMFREL (Committee
for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia), up to 1.5 million Cambodians
representing 17 percent of the electorate will lose their right to
vote in the upcoming commune elections due to irregularities in
voters’ registration lists (*).
II- SYSTEMATIC IMPERSONATION TO INFLATE VOTES FOR THE RULING PARTY
At the same time that countless real citizens and legitimate voters
are excluded from voters’ registration lists (see Point I related to
disenfranchisement), the NEC slyly keeps countless ghost voters’ names
in voter lists in order to allow illegitimate voters paid or
manipulated by the CPP to cast votes through impersonation with the
use of controversial voter identification documents fraudulently
issued by CPP local officials who control the country. According to
independent observers, ghost voters represent up to 10 percent of
registered voters in many polling stations. The controversial voter
identification documents are a new version of “Form 1018” now called
“Identification Document” with similar characteristics as “Form 1018”
that easily allow fraud (**).
Moreover, with more and more CPP-affiliated state employees being
encouraged to register as voters more than once at different places
(see evidence presented by the opposition SRP at their May 29 press
conference) and also with the increasing number of migrant workers who
will not be able to vote at the place where they were originally
registered as voters, the CPP will be in a position to make use of a
larger number of ghost voters’ names for impersonation through
illegally issued voter “Identification Documents”, thus allowing them
to bring a larger number of illegitimate voters into polling stations
on Voting Day. Those illegitimate voters will be fraudulently given
the names and voting rights of ghost voters to inflate votes for the
CPP.
There are three transparency-based measures that could prevent the
implementation of the CPP impersonation voter fraud scheme:
1- Before Voting Day, all CPP commune chiefs assisted by CPP-appointed
commune clerks must issue a public report giving detailed information
on voter “Identification Documents” they have issued in their
respective communes purportedly for voters who don’t have any other ID
documents.
2- On Voting Day, a copy of all officially and legally issued voter
“Identification Documents” to be used by a limited number of voters at
each polling station, must be posted at the corresponding polling
station, thus allowing election observers to detect any voter
fraudulently issued with “Identification Documents”.
3- On Voting Day, all remaining blank and unused forms of voter
“Identification Documents” as well as the commune stamp validating any
official documents, must be locked in a place that can be seen by
everybody, thus ensuring that no voter “Identification Document” could
be issued on Voting Day, as prohibited in election regulations (***).
If the CPP and the NEC are not willing to implement the three above
measures they are confirming that they want to proceed with their plan
to manipulate elections and distort the people’s will.
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
Leader of the Opposition
(*) Please read reports from The Cambodia Daily
http://tinyurl.com/7fedv8e and Radio Free Asia
http://tinyurl.com/899t9f7
(**) In their final report the Election Observation Mission from the
European Union asked the Cambodian government to abolish the use of
“Form 1018”, which they claimed was fraudulently issued at polling
stations during the last national elections in July 2008
http://tinyurl.com/crr9jrt
(***) The use of “Form 1018” and its new version “Identification
Document” is essential in the implementation of the CPP impersonation
voter fraud scheme. This explains why the CPP-led government has shown
no willingness to issue standardized National ID Cards to all
citizens. Once all citizens have in their possession the same National
ID Card, all “Forms 1018” and other controversial voter
“Identification Documents” would disappear and the CPP would not be
able to manipulate elections on such a large scale as now.
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