Disenfranchised Votes Point to Potentially Different Election Result

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Tuesday shared initial findings from a survey carried out across the country in the wake of July’s national election, which found that one-third of the country’s eligible voters could not vote on election day. Laura Thornton, the NDI’s country director, said the survey was conducted nationwide to assess the impact of candidate debates organized by NDI, and also to understand people’s experiences on voting day in the wake of widespread reports of irregularities and complaints that people were unable to vote. The survey, conducted by the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) found that “29.5 percent of citizens attempted to vote on election day, but were unable to.” This amounts to about one-third of eligible voters. “Of citizens unable to vote, 32.6 percent were unable to find their names on the list,” while “15.2 percent said they were prevented from voting by polling officials.” Coupled with the 300,000-vote difference between the ruling CPP and the opposition CNRP, “this number of disenfranchised voters had the po­tential to have changed the outcome of the elections,” Ms. Thornton said. …

 Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/latest/disenfranchised-votes-point-to-potentially-different-election-result-46254/