New election ‘cannot be done’: watchdog

Election monitor Comfrel released its final assessment of the 2013 national elections yesterday, detailing a raft of irregularities, while at the same time acknowledging that the opposition’s claims of having won the election were undermined by its reluctance to provide concrete evidence. The 147-page report makes note of numerous examples of unfair advantages enjoyed by the ruling party – particularly in the fields of access to media, campaign financing and the misuse of state resources in campaigning – but goes on to note that Cambodia’s National Election Committee is ill-equipped to investigate irregularities. However, although the organisation counted more than 11,400 irregularities – nearly six times the amount recorded in 2008 – the report maintains that while the Cambodia National Rescue Party “rejected the election results claiming it had won 63 seats, [it] did not provide evidence to support its claims”. During a briefing before the report’s dissemination, Comfrel board director Thun Saray said that, given the NEC’s inability to resolve irregularities, the opposition’s current calls for a new election were counterintuitive. “The CNRP has called for new election as soon as possible. I think that it cannot be done, because the CNRP did not recognise the result of the election, and if there was a new election, it would still be organised by the existing electoral legal framework and election system,” Saray said. “If our politicians maintain a hard line and do not sit down to find a way to walk together, our country will be in chaos in the future.”

 Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-election-%E2%80%98cannot-be-done%E2%80%99-watchdog