Cambodia's weekend elections will be the 'least fair' in

history
Updated 26 July 2013, 17:34 AEST
Thousands of government and opposition supporters have hit the streets in Cambodia to drum up
last minute support ahead of this Sunday's election.
Thousands of Government and Opposition supporters have hit the streets in Cambodia to drum
up last minute support ahead of this Sunday's election. And election monitors are fanning out
across the country to ensure a free and fair vote. Auskar Surbakti speaks with Koul Panha,
Director of Comfrel, Cambodia's Committee for Free and Fair Elections. (Credit: ABC)
Thousands of government and opposition supporters have hit the streets in Cambodia to drum up
last minute support ahead of this Sunday's election.
Election monitors are fanning out across the country to ensure a free and fair vote.
Koul Panha, Director of Comfrel Cambodia's Committee for Free and Fair Elections has told
Newsline, the election to be held at the weekend, will be the least fair election if compared to
previous ones.
"This time the Cambodian election is not yet free and fair election according to the international
standard," he said.
He says, however, so far it has also been the least violent election and there has been far more
youth participation than in previous years.
Koul Panha says there are three main problems with the elections being free and fair - media
access, police and military officials being controlled by the ruling party and "ghost" voters.
He says the return of Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy is a positive step but this time the
opposition leader has not registered as a contesting candidate.
"This is a new challenge that has not been settled by the government.
"It is the first at time in Cambodia that the opposition leader has no name as a contesting
candidate."
This election has bought more people out on to the streets than before.
Koul Panha puts it down to youth involvement that has been sparked by them having access to
information on social media.

"Most of them got information about political parties though Facebook and they communicate,
themselves, through Facebook and telephones, so they are able to share that information and they
encourage among themselves to participate in the election campaign," he said.
He also attributes the increase in political interest to the merging of the Sam Rainsy Party with
the Human Rights Party.
"This encouraged many voters who were unhappy with the divide of the opposition party, this
time they merged together - it encouraged them to show up in support of the opposition."
Thousands of elections observers will be monitoring the vote on Sunday, however there still
aren't enough to cover every one of the 19,000 polling stations.
Koul Panha says that the focus will be on the 10,000 larger polling station and areas of possible
conflict.
Even with the observers in place Koul Panha is cautious when commenting on how the election
results will be treated.
"We have to get the full picture, information, during election day and the counting to see what
happens -whether they are going smoothly without manipulation," he said.
"This is a big concern - we need to be careful to make rash judgments on this election whether
we call for people to accept [it] as a legitimate election or not
"However we hope that everything will go peacefully and smoothly."
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2013-07-26/cambodias-weekendelections-will-be-the-least-fair-in-history/1167010: retrieved: 26/7/2013