(New York) – The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) appears to have been involved in electoral fraud in Cambodia’s July 28, 2013 national elections, according to residents and ruling party officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch. All allegations of election fraud and other irregularities, including bias in the election

machinery, should be promptly investigated by an independent commission.The CPP-controlled National Election Commission (NEC) released preliminary results showing that the ruling party won 68 seats and the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) won 55. Based on the same results, the

CPP won approximately 49 percent of the national vote, while the CNRP won approximately 44 percent. The opposition has claimed widespread fraud and called for the creation of an independent expert body that includes the United Nations and nongovernmental groups to examine the results and address

irregularities.“Senior ruling party officials appear to have been involved in issuing fake election documents and fraudulently registering voters in multiple provinces,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “And people from the party seem to have been turning up in places where they clearly don’t live and insisting on voting – not to mention the many other claims of fraud around the country.”A CPP village chief, who asked for

anonymity to protect his security, gave Human Rights Watch an insider’s account of how ruling party authorities in his district engaged in electoral fraud by issuing fraudulent “Identity

Certificates for Elections” (ICE) before

the July 28 elections. The certificates

allow people whose names appear on voter

registration lists to vote even though

they otherwise lack proper

identification documents.

The village chief, whose local CPP

superiors worked under instructions from

a CPP Center-Level Work Team headed by

an army general and a CPP Central

Committee member, told Human Rights

Watch that his immediate party superiors

directly oversaw the illegal issuance of

certificates. He explained that a member

of the general’s team gave the

instructions to issue certificates in

the names of villagers who were on the

voter registration rolls but were known

either to be dead or to have long left

their original homes.

The work team member allegedly arranged

for soldiers and their wives from an

army division stationed in the province

to be photographed for certificates.

These were then issued by CPP commune

and Interior Ministry officials, who

allegedly conspired in the scheme to

falsely certify these soldiers and their

wives as local residents eligible to

vote in the commune where these

officials were responsible for voter

registration. One media report, which is

consistent with other accounts,

recounted villager descriptions of army

-organized voting by thousands of

soldiers shipped across provincial

boundaries in military vehicles to vote

in parts of Siem Reap province where

none of them had ever been seen before.

“Issuing hundreds of thousands of fake

identity certificates was allegedly one

of several key ways the ruling party

organized large scale election fraud,”

Adams said. “Now, a CPP village chief

has confirmed that this happened in his

area.”

In another case, villagers in Kandal

province, adjacent to the capital, Phnom

Penh, described to Human Rights Watch

efforts by senior CPP officials to vote

in more than one place. When confronted

by local residents, the party officials

threatened them with arrest and later

returned and made death threats.

Numerous residents of Koki Thom commune

in Kandal interviewed by Human Rights

Watch said that on election day, Ngo

Sovan, whose business card states that

he is “minister delegate attached to the

prime minister” and specifies that he is

a secretary of state at the Ministry of

Justice, arrived in their commune to

vote. He was accompanied by other

members of the party’s grassroots

strengthening team assigned to the area,

as well as by Heng Seksa, whose card

says he is a “deputy secretary-general

of the Royal Cambodian Government,” and

an entourage of dozens of government

officials from Phnom Penh.

The villagers protested the group’s

attempt to vote there, asserting to

local electoral authorities that none of

the people were local residents. The

local electoral authorities, whom the

villagers described as linked to the

ruling party, nevertheless allowed the

group to cast ballots.

Ngo Sovan’s team included several

national level civil servants. According

to the national voter registration list

compiled from official data on the

National Election Committee website and

examined by Human Rights Watch, Ngo

Sovan was registered to vote in three

places. The first (voter registration

number R-1424108) is at his known

residence in Phnom Penh, where he is a

prominent figure and resident, according

to local residents Human Rights Watch

interviewed.

Ngo Sovan is also registered in the

provinces of Kandal (voter registration

number R-6132454) and Svay Rieng (voter

registration number R-6851267). He heads

ruling party election grassroots

strengthening or work teams in both

provinces. In Kandal, Ngo Sovan also ran

as a CPP candidate for the National

Assembly.

Heng Seksa, who accompanied Ngo Sovan in

Kandal, was registered to vote in both

Phnom Penh (voter registration number R

-6354916) and Kandal (voter registration

number R-6132299), according to official

data from the NEC website.

Villagers told Human Rights Watch that

members of the entourage threatened them

with arrest during the confrontation

over whether the group’s members would

be allowed to vote. After polls closed,

a contingent of “flying tiger”

motorcycle police arrived in the area.

Villagers told Human Rights Watch that

the police said they were looking for

“ringleaders” of the “disturbances” that

had occurred when the ruling party

group’s voter registration was

challenged.

The morning after the elections, some

members of the group reappeared in the

village along with others, including one

armed man in civilian clothes, who

attempted to identify and apprehend an

alleged “ringleader.” Two witnesses told

Human Rights Watch that members of the

group threatened to kill villagers who

refused to provide information on the

whereabouts of the alleged ringleader,

whom the group also vowed to kill and

who has gone into hiding.

“The multiple voting scheme suggests the

possibility of systematic election fraud

by the CPP and raises serious questions

about the credibility of the election,”

Adams said. “Since the National Election

Committee and local election commissions are under the ruling party’s control, influential governments and donors

should demand independent investigations into these and other credible

allegations of election related

irregularities. Without this, it’s hard

to see how Cambodian voters can have

confidence in the legitimacy of the

elections and the new government that

results.”