Opposition Candlelight Party vice president Son Chhay returned from Australia to Cambodia on Sunday and will face lawsuits lodged over his claim of vote-stealing, including a $1-million suit brought against him by the ruling CPP.
Only 1 in 10 commune chiefs elected across the country last month are women, as a ruling party spokesman said what mattered was effective gender-promoting policies and not the gender of candidates.
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party was confirmed the overwhelming victor at the June commune election, as the electoral body announced on Sunday the final results of an election marred with allegations of irregularities and intimidation.
Candlelight Party vice president Son Chhay is the target of a $1 million complaint by the ruling party, where he is accused of impacting the CPP’s honor during an interview with Washington-based online media Cambodia Daily.
Election NGO Comfrel mustered fewer than 2,000 observers on Sunday; Nicfec only around 20 — both mere fractions of total polling places. Political pressure and loss of funding have decimated groups that once provided leading assessments of Cambodian elections.
The head of Poipet’s commune election committee said she had rejected the complaint because it didn’t identify any individuals.
Police on Wednesday morning arrested a member of the Candlelight Party in Battambang province, but would not tell reporters what the man was being charged with.
This year’s election was marked by a tidal wave of support for the ruling party. As preliminary results come in, just four out of the country’s 1,652 communes voted in opposition commune chiefs, all from the Candlelight Party.
A chorus of political parties are decrying the conduct of the June 5 commune election, with the Candlelight Party calling for reforms to the NEC to ensure a smoother process.
For some, the Candlelight Party’s single-digit wins in communes is simply “unbelievable.” Others point to voter intimidation and the dearth of neutral observers as burying the voters’ “real” will.
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