NEC checks continue
Acting on the orders of the Constitutional Council, the National Election Committee yesterday opened the packages containing ballots and original documents used to tally votes from eight Battambang province polling stations. In contrast to a similar examination of 13 “Safety Packages A” from Kratie on Sunday that found eight had not been sealed, all of those examined yesterday were appropriately sealed, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the Committee for Free and Fair Elections confirmed. Counting forms 1102 from two polling stations, however, which were used for official election results that have been issued by the NEC, did not have a vote count recorded, a finding that merits further investigation, Comfrel director Koul Panha said. “I would suggest the Constitutional Council and the NEC conduct a study as to why [polling centre officials] did not write the number and why [political party officials] signed [the form] without looking at the result,” he said. During the opening of the sealed bags yesterday, overseen by three Constitutional Council members as well as officials from both parties, the NEC simply read out results from the official forms and did not allow the opposition to cross-check numbers with their own copies, even when different tallies were announced. The NEC also read out votes on a political-party basis and did not read out the total ballots cast at each polling station nor count valid and invalidated votes, Cambodia National Rescue Party officials said. …
