Talk of betrayal as CNRP loses council race in Prey Veng

Anyone passing through Prey Doeum Thnoeng could be forgiven for pinning the tidy little village for a stronghold of the ruling CPP. Just about every second house along the red dirt road through town sports a bright blue banner with a checkmark next to the ruling party logo. Posters for the opposition CNRP are few and far between. But the lopsided partisanship is only skin deep. In 2012’s commune council elections, the two leading opposition parties—which have since merged to form the CNRP—took 34 of the 65 seats in the district to the CPP’s 31. With the CPP dominating most everywhere else, Sithor Kandal was well placed to become one of the few districts in the country to fall to the opposition in Sunday’s district council elections. But when the final ballot was counted inside a dim, breezy classroom at the local high school, the CNRP came away with only 31 votes, just shy of the 33 it needed to win a majority of the district council’s 17 seats—and with it the power to guide local development projects. In its campaign leading up to the vote, the CNRP, emboldened by a strong showing in national elections last year, said some CPP commune councilors were sure to cast their ballots for the opposition. But as it turned out in Sithor Kandal on Sunday, it was opposition commune councilors that switched sides in the secret ballot, with local CNRP faithful convinced that some of their members had been paid off. …

 Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/talk-of-betrayal-as-cnrp-loses-race-in-prey-veng-58973/