Cambodians Counting Votes Amid Measured Optimism

By SETH MYDANS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- International observers voiced cautious optimism Monday over the conduct of Cambodia's parliamentary election as villagers and townspeople in 11,699 polling places painstakingly tallied Sunday's ballots.

....."Whatever the outcome of this election -- if it's very close or if it's very clear, whatever happens -- the important thing is they must honor and respect the people's wishes," said Glenys Kinnock, the special representative of the European Union, which is largely financing the election.

.....But Mrs. Kinnock, visiting a downtown counting station Monday, offered a positive preliminary assessment of the voting itself. She said the election on Sunday, in which officials said more than 90 percent of the country's 5.4 million registered voters took part, was "almost entirely free of serious irregularities." --- New York Times, 28 July, 1998

G21 Fears Confirmed

Hi, Rod,

I'd guess you already saw the shite from Reuters. But the Prince and Rainsy ain't buying into the "landslide victory."

Check the Reuters report for the boycott of this election. Quotes follow....Sadly, it's not that bad, but....... this is the sort of thing that I'd expected - and had prayed I was really, really wrong." --- Kim Carter, G21.

Cambodia on brink as opposition rejects vote

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) - Cambodia teetered on the brink of renewed crisis on Tuesday as opposition leaders said their apparent defeat in general elections was caused by fraud and they would boycott the new parliament and organize protests.

The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of government leader Hun Sen claimed a convincing victory in Sunday's voting and called the opposition allegations "ridiculous."

Given the ruling party's own projections so far, an opposition boycott would mean a new government could not form because the constitution requires endorsement by two-thirds of the 122-seat National Assembly, analysts said. --- By David Brunnstrom, Reuters

Version 4.0, Event #128: The Mammoth Edition G21 ASIA: Part Three of ROD AMIS' reporting on the elections in Kampuchea(Cambodia): "Cambodia on the Brink" or "Don't Worry Be Happy?" Preliminary results from the election. BARE KNUCKLES: JEFF WINBUSH on the Thousand-Mile-Stare experience of Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". FAX NIKITA: A new installment of our compendium of the bizarre AND the interesting. G21 DAY ONE: TODAY: ROD AMIS sends an Open Letter from G21 to the New York Times.. G21 DAY ONE: ROD AMIS on the upcoming G21 investigation of India's Congress Party mover-and-shaker Sonia Gandhi. G21 ASIA: Part Two of ROD AMIS' reporting on the elections in Kampuchea(Cambodia): Interview with Lar Mundstock of the National Development Party. ON DRUGS: ADAM SMITH, Barry McCaffrey's favorite writer, reports on "Fear & Punishment in Plano, Texas." VOX POPULI YOUR page of e-mailed comments is updated. Looks like PHIL MARTIN week! BOB POWERS delivers a one-two punch this Issue: POWERSBOOKS: Has tomes on Ritalin, the Civil War, Tobacco, Meditation and Poetry. POWERSSOUND: HUGE Coverage, folks: Jazzman Ken Peplowski, Guitarist Stefan Grossman, the Alanis Morissette tour, Lauren Hill of The Fugees, David Bowie, problems for Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, and the latest on "Hello Nasty" from the Beastie Boys. [Hold On! I thought HART did the dish! --- Ed.] G21 DAY ONE: RADIO RAHEEM on the Shoot-out at the Capitol. TABLOID HART: THOMAS HART's Weekly Celebrity Dish talks about Bruce and Demi's break-up, and then "Southern Baptists to Women: Sit Down & Shut Up!" In DON'T READ ME FIRST! Our Publisher on This Week's Edition. LAST WEEK's EDITION BarnesandNoble SEARCH: Every writer here still reads offline. We support Barnes and Noble and hope you will, too. This is the place to find the best and brightest! For rapid response, use The Message Board HOME

In Part One of this series on the Cambodian election, G21 attempted to provide background on this pivotal event in the history of a southeast Asian country best known for the "Killing Fields" experience it underwent over twenty years ago.

In the previous article, in which we interviewed Lar Mundstock of the National Development Party, we attempted to bring the story into the present, even as millions of Cambodians went to the polls for the second time in five years, hoping to establish a democratic government.

Regular readers of this magazine are aware that when we cover important news stories like this one, we usually chronicle two stories: how the other media handled the facts, and then the facts themselves. This coverage is no different.

Today has been one of those exhausting days which exemplify the best and worst of journalism. Based on the what G21 considers shoddy journalism of the Mouthpiece press on this story, we went out on a limb and challenged the New York Times coverage of this story. You can see that here.

Meanwhile, we were simultaneously dealing with a series of faxes, e-mails and telephone calls from/to Cambodia, other parts of the States where we have contacts with sources on the ground in Cambodia, and Thailand, in an effort to bring you the best information we could garner in this confusing(see above) situation.

This is a special G21 series on the July 26 elections in Kampuchea. G21 wishes to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Peg Thomas, Ms. Goni Blake and Ms. Betsy Burns of the Grotto Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, and former G21 Staff Writer Kim Carter for assistance in the research for this series. And we are especially grateful to Ms. Lar Mundstock of the National Development Party of Cambodia for agreeing to be interviewed about conditions in her country today.

G21 Alumnus Kim Carter contacted us early this a.m. with the news of the Prince Ranariddh's and Sam Rainsy's joint press conference rejecting this election. Our fact-checking confirmed Kim's report. Though the New York Times and Bangkok Post did not carry this story this morning, both AP and Reuters confirmed what Kim had said by 7:50 a.m. EDT.

The Reuters report from David Brunnstrom contained this from the joint FUNCIPEC/Sam Rainsy Party press conference:

"We are going to protest in all legal and peaceful ways against this unfair election," Sam Rainsy said. "So we lodge complaints, we will write petitions, and, why not, organize all kinds of protest."

"We have decided this morning that no one... will attend the next session of the National Assembly," Ranariddh said.

Ranariddh said his party was ahead in the early stage of the count on Monday, but by the afternoon its lead had been reversed.

Sam Rainsy called the apparent CPP victory "a betrayal of the people." [Emphasis ours -- Ed.]

But G21, early today[28 July, 1998] found this part of Brunnstrom's report even more an area of concern:

A foreign diplomat in Phnom Penh said the JIOG should have not issued so unequivocal an endorsement so soon and said he believed there had been heavy pressure on it from Asian countries.

"The statement, especially concerning the counting process, was utterly irresponsible. It was released at a time of growing confusion about the counting and was a betrayal of their commitment to see the election process through to the end," the diplomat said.

"They've signed off when the process was far from complete."

Quite obviously, having concerns about the issue of how the votes would be counted, G21 found this latter statement a confirmation of our worst fears.

We began contacting our other sources with contacts on the ground in Southeast Asia, and found ourselves at fault on a rumor we reported in Part One of this series. Our investigation revealed that, contrary to earlier information reported in G21 that Hun Sen had troops ready on the Thai-Cambodia border, it was indeed the opposition, under Norodom Ranariddh, which was ready to further destablize the country should the election results not go his way.

This has always been part of the problem in trying to report about Asia politics from a distance: how many of your sources do you trust, and how much fact-checking is enough. (Ask CNN.)

One thing was clear by 2:00 p.m(PDT): Hun Sen had declared victory today(28 July) and the opposition parties were busy developing a boycott of the National Assembly of Cambodia.

In fact, by 3:30 p.m.(PDT) G21 had in hand a communique from the "National United Front" encouraging a boycott of the National Assembly.