Cambodian opposition party asks election body to create poll probe committee

The main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Tuesday asked the National Election Committee (NEC) to establish a joint committee to investigate irregularities during Sunday's general election. "There were many irregularities during the election on July 28, so I'd like to ask Your Excellency to set up an urgent joint committee to investigate and report about those irregularities," Sam Rainsy, CNRP's president, said in a request to NEC's chairman Im Suosdey. He said the committee should comprise the representatives of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the CNRP, the NEC, the United Nations, and local and international NGOs. Sam Rainsy said Monday that the party did not accept the election results because he claimed that about 1.2 million voters were unable to vote because their names were not on the voter lists. Moreover, he said about 1 million ghost names on the voter lists and about 200,000 duplicate names. The royalist Funcinpec Party on Tuesday also called for the establishment of an independent committee to investigate irregularities in Sunday's poll. "Observing serious irregularities in the election process on Sunday, the Funcinpec Party calls for the establishment of an independent committee in order to monitor those noticeable irregularities," the party said in a statement. The party is led by Princess Norodom Arun Rasmey, the youngest daughter of late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. The party did not get even a single seat in Sunday's election, In the last election in 2008, it earned two seats. There is no immediate reply from the NEC. Ouch Borith, secretary of state for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that the opposition party should present " concrete evidence" to substantiate its irregularity allegations. He said the opposition party should recognize the truth as tens of thousands of national observers and hundreds of foreign monitors have accepted that the election was conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner. According to the initial results, the ruling Cambodian People' s Party (CPP) of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen gained the victory with 68 parliamentary seats and the CNRP got the remaining 55 seats in Sunday's poll, said information minister Khieu Kanharith, spokesman for the government and the CPP.