Constitutional Council Rejects Voting Complaint

The Constitutional Council on Wednesday upheld the decision by the National Election Committee (NEC) to reject a complaint filed by the opposition CNRP regarding alleged voting irregularities in Battambang province. Battambang marks the 13th rejection out of 15 provinces and municipalities that the CNRP has lodged complaints for, with the Council on Tuesday saying that the opposition had provided little evidence to support its claims of flawed voting on July 28. “The Constitutional Council has upheld the [NEC’s] decision on August 16 and considers the [Battambang] case now closed,” Council President Ek Sam Ol said emphatically as he read the statement in a televised address to reporters. Mr. Sam Ol said the Council was satisfied that voting at all 1,401 Battambang polling stations, where there was a 60.36 percent turnout, was carried out without violence or chaos, while the opening of eight boxes containing the original voting documents used to investigate irregularities, dubbed safety box A, was done so in the presence of all parties. … NEC representative Mean Satik said Wednesday that every country in the world has some faults with their electoral process and he was pleased that the Council had upheld the results of the NEC’s own investigation. On Wednesday, the Council rejected a separate, general complaint from the CNRP relating to nationwide irregularities regarding voter paperwork at the ballot boxes and the removability of the ink used to stain voters’ fingers.

 Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/constitutional-council-rejects-voting-complaint-41727/