Investigation Committee Nixed 1 Day After Creation
A joint-party task force that the National Election Committee (NEC) on Saturday announced would be set up to investigate alleged irregularities during the July 28 national election was abruptly abandoned Sunday, with NEC President Im Sousdey announcing that his organization will instead push ahead with its own investigation. … The decision to end the short-lived investigation committee came after the opposition on Saturday night rejected the results of a meeting held earlier in the day with the CPP due to the fact that the ruling party insisted the U.N. have no authority in the investigation of vote irregularities. … Speaking to reporters outside NEC headquarters at the Ministry of Interior on Sunday, Mr. Sousdey said his organization could not wait for the CNRP to agree to join in the investigation, as the NEC has to resolve complaints of voting irregularities according to a preset election timetable. “The NEC will work with participation from international and national monitors. The NEC will create a sub-committee to settle the irregularities step-by-step,” Mr. Sousdey said, without elaborating on who those monitors might be. “If they [CNRP] don’t join us, we cannot wait for them; we have many things to do to follow our calendar,” he said. … The opposition, which claims massive electoral fraud and says it won the poll, has insisted that the U.N. take over the central role on any joint-party committee after the NEC establishes one, a request CNRP president Sam Rainsy reiterated in a letter to the NEC released on Saturday night. In the letter, addressed to Mr. Sousdey, Mr. Rainsy said that the opposition would not be part of any investigative committee until a place for the U.N. as a full participating member was made. “The CNRP thinks that the composition of the committee proposed by the NEC is too narrow and contradicts the wishes of the CNRP,” he wrote. … Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that, in line with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s statements last week, the CPP can simply not allow international organizations to play an active role in any investigation of the election. “We have made it clear that this is a matter of Cambodian sovereignty,” Mr. Kanharith said. … A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Saturday released a statement saying that Mr. Ban welcomed the peaceful conduct of the election but also supported an investigation into alleged election irregularities. “Amid reports of irregularities, the United Nations encourages the competent authorities to adjudicate complaints fairly and transparently, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the accurate determination of, and respect for, the will of the Cambodian people,” the statement says. Philip Sen, a spokesman for the U.N.’s mission in Cambodia, said Sunday that the U.N. had yet to receive a request from either party to participate as a member or observer in any investigation into election irregularities. While the NEC had last week ruled out a joint-party investigative committee involving the ruling party and opposition as a move that would be outside the scope of its powers, on Saturday it did an about-turn, hosting a representative from each of the two parties to discuss the creation of one. After the representatives emerged from the meeting, NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha announced that both parties had agreed in principle to the creation of a committee to investigate irregularities. “The meeting went well,” Mr. Nytha said Saturday. “In the end, both parties agreed on two issues: First, to create a joint committee that has the NEC and representatives of both parties. Second, that this joint committee will conduct a meeting to discuss its mandate and the scope of its activities.” …
The Cambodia Daily
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/investigation-committee-nixed-1-day-after-creation-38277/
