Popular vote closer than commune count suggests, Situation Room estimates

A CNRP supporter with the party logo stickers on his face. Hong Menea

Mon, 5 June 2017

Andrew Nachemson, Soth Koemsoeun and Niem Chheng

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Despite winning approximately 30 percent of commune seats up for grabs, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party is projected to take about 45 percent of yesterday’s popular vote, to the Cambodian People’s Party’s 48 percent, according to preliminary results announced today by election monitoring group the Situation Room.

The group, which is made up of watchdogs and human rights organisations, said that while the projection is based only on a sampling of votes, they expected it to be “95% accurate”. It also noted in a statement yesterday that it hadn’t found any major issues in the voting process.

“Up to now, we haven’t seen any formal complaints regarding the ballot counting, but we have observed some small irregularities,” the press release stated, noting specific instances of monitors being banned from election stations and other issues.

Official results will be available on June 24.

Transparency International Cambodia director Preap Kol presented yesterday the group’s preliminary findings gathered from 411 polling stations across all provinces and Phnom Penh.

“There were minor – very minor – incidents. They were not systematic; they were isolated incidents, and they did not affect the outcome of the election,” Kol said during the presentation.

Kol did say that while the day of the election was mostly free of intimidation, the weeks preceding it created a hostile atmosphere that may leave a stain on the election’s legacy.