Follow CamboJA’s live blog of the 2023 national elections:
Funincpec Says it Won Five Seats in National Assembly
11:45 pm: Government-aligned media outlet Fresh News reported that the Funcinpec party won seats in Kampong Cham, Prey Veng, Kandal, Phnom Penh and Kampong Thom, confirmed by Funcinpec spokesperson Nhoeurn Raden. He told CamboJA: “After the primary [voting result] calculations, we found out that we got five seats” and said those were the correct provinces. Raden said his party would review their calculations again on Monday.
The National Election Committee did not respond to CamboJA’s requests for comment. Funcinpec did not win a single seat in the 2018 elections and won under 2% of the popular vote in the 2022 commune elections.
“I just hope Hun Manet is more open to some kind of democracy,” Funcinpec president Prince Norodom Chakravuth told CamboJA earlier today. “Hun Manet was from the West but he is still the son of Hun Sen, and I hope he understands the background of the population…If he wants to make the country more democratic, if he wants to develop the country, it will be a good point and we can work together.”
CPP Claims 300,000 Spoiled Ballots
9:00 pm: Ruling CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan claims there were approximately 300,000 spoiled ballots or around 3% of the total ballots cast.
“This 3% of invalid ballots are not too much,” Eysan told CamboJA. “In the previous election the number of invalid ballots were 2% to 5%. …So, it means that people support the democracy and the people want peace and stability of politic and development which is led by the government.”
Preliminary NEC Results Show Ruling CPP Dominating Elections
8:00 pm: The ruling CPP has gained more than 83% of the vote after 18.1% of polling stations published results, database Kamnotra reported. The party with the next highest amount of votes, Funcinpec, received 8.5% of the vote.
NEC Says 84.58% Voter Turn-Out
7:30 pm: National Election Committee (NEC) spokesperson Hang Puthea says there was 84.58% turnout among registered voters.
In a press conference, NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha confirmed that NEC counted only valid ballots when calculating the voter turn-out results. He said the NEC did not yet have clear data on the total number of invalid ballots.
“The valid vote is the voice of the people, so the valid is the result,” Nytha said. “The ballots are invalid, they do not affect the election.”
Nytha said that the results from the counting of ballots at the polling stations show that the CPP has the most support. He said the voter turnout had increased compared to the 2018 national elections and the 2022 commune elections.
“Now we have more than 84% and compared to 2022 we have only 80% , this year’s election rate is slightly higher than last year and there are no major complaints, but the difficulties in the election are natural disasters [rain in some provinces],” Nytha said.
Opposition Activist Reportedly Arrested Over Spoiled Ballots
7:00 pm: Authorities appear to have arrested Chao Veasna, a former CNRP activist who was previously arrested for political activities in 2017 and was released from prison in 2022. He was included in a list of more than 30 names, allegedly linked to efforts to promote spoiling ballots, published by government-aligned media earlier today. “Please review clearly the information before arresting my father,” Veasna’s daughter Chao Ratanak wrote on her Facebook. At 11:25 pm, she confirmed to CamboJA that her father was arrested at 6 pm on Sunday. “He was arrested when he was traveling along the road.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen Warns of Legal Action for Spoiled Ballots, Calls for Confessions
Around 5 pm, two hours after polling stations closed, Hun Sen sent a voice message on his Telegram warning that people on a Telegram channel sharing images of spoiled ballots would face legal action. He said that anyone who destroyed a ballot is clearly an opposition supporter.
“I would like to inform the opposition last night that you all talked on the Sbai Telegram channel to encourage crossing ballots and sending the ballot to the leaders in Paris [referring to Sam Rainsy]. Now we know the faces of those people but do not be afraid. Please come out to confess to the authorities and the National Election Commission because the destruction of the ballot is a crime that must be punished. If you don’t come to confess, there will be legal action against all of you,” he said.
CPP Says “Landslide” Victory Ahead
6:07 pm: Ruling CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan tells CamboJA that the CPP is leading the voting but that results are not yet official. “It is clear that the ruling CPP is leading and is 100% winning. We cannot yet announce the number, but it is clear that CPP won in a landslide.”
In room 5061 at the Tuol Kork Primary School polling station in Phnom Penh, where the ruling CPP’s Hun Manet voted earlier this morning, had a total 406 ballots that used for voting, the CPP received 331 votes, Funcinpec Party 36 votes and eight other parties received a handful of votes each. There were 23 invalidated ballots, one of which had the word “crazy” written at the top.
A New Outlook at One Phnom Penh Polling Station With Previous “Irregularities” in Vote Tallying:
Toul Svay Prey 1 commune polling station in Phnom Penh was identified by Human Rights Watch as one site with vote tallying “irregularities” in the 2022 commune elections, which were acknowledged by the National Election Committee on Friday, two days before the national elections and after weeks of denial. CamboJA reporters watched poll workers re-do a vote results (“1102”) form four times, as of 5:55pm. Poll workers told CamboJA they are making corrections due to errors in how they had completed the form.
Toul Svay Prey 1 commune election committee chief Sok Vy, who had previously rejected Human Rights Watch report of errors in commune election vote tallying at the polling station under his supervision, acknowledged to CamboJA that there had been mistakes.
“Techniques change over time, but I have trained with the NEC is better than last year, smoother than last year,” he said. “Previously, mistakes were made.”
Poll workers and Vy told CamboJA that the only party sending election observers to monitor vote tallying was the ruling CPP. Another organization monitoring vote tallying is the NGO Cambodian Women for Peace and Development, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An. More than 80 % of domestic election observers are linked to the ruling CPP, including this NGO, according to the database Kamnotra.
5:34 pm: Second to last box of ballots being refilled after counting finished at Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk secondary school voting station.
Poll workers repeatedly call out “Number 18” in Khmer as they count ballots, meaning the ruling CPP, listed 18th on the ballot, has earned another vote.
5:07 pm: Government aligned-media Fresh News publishes a new article sharing a National Election Committee document with official voter turnout at 84.21%, confirmed by an NEC spokesperson. The percentage has increased from 78.28% voter turnout when polls closed at 3 pm.
When asking about the total number of spoiled ballots across all votes, NEC spokesperson Dim Sovannarom said: “As you know, it has 23789 polling stations. We need time to calculate. I cannot answer you now.”
5:03 pm: In Kampong Cham province’s Pdao Chum commune, which elected a Candlelight Party chief in last year’s commune elections, one room had 48 spoiled ballots and 272 ballots listed as valid out of 353 voters registered for that room, according to poll workers’ voting results form, seen by CamboJA. A rate of 13.6% spoiled ballots.
4:53 pm: National Election Committee official Yim Boran says there have been 39 spoiled ballots, while CPP observer Seng Pisey said that an additional 80 ballots were not cast, out of 400 registered voters for room 0093 of Toul Svay Prey 1 commune’s polling station at Toul Sleng Primary School.
4:38 pm: Poll workers review ballots at Toul Kork Primary School polling station.
4:29 pm: A Telegram channel with more than 6,600 subscribers has been posting dozens of alleged spoiled ballots. The Interior Ministry is investigating individuals connected to the chat, according the Khmer Times. Phnom Penh police confirmed authorities are investigating social media posts related to spoiled ballots and that authorities had taken in some individuals for questioning. The Interior Ministry has not responded to CamboJA’s requests for comment.
4:04 pm: Poll workers show spoiled ballots during the vote tallying process.
Voter Turn-Out Rates Increasing After Polling Stations Close
3:54 pm: Government aligned outlet Fresh News reports 81.48% voter turn-out among registered voters, several percentage points higher than the NEC’s official results issued at 3pm. Fresh News included the NEC’s document noting 78.28% turnout, which was later removed from the article. National Election Committee spokesperson Hang Puthea told CamboJA the reason for the discrepancy between Fresh News and the NEC: “This [78.28%] is not a final number because we have challenge with internet service [slow].”
3:30 pm: Poll workers organize ballots at Tuol Svay Prey 1 commune, which Human Rights Watch identified as a site where officials had improperly recorded votes in the 2022 commune elections (the head of the commune’s election committee denied this to CamboJA). At the start of the process, a CamboJA reporter was told by a worker that only one election observer from a political party was present in one room, and she was with the ruling CPP. A CPP observer appeared to be the only observer in another room as well.
On Friday, the National Election Committee acknowledged that there had been “mistakes” in the commune election vote tallying process.
Authorities Questioning Suspects in Spoiled Ballot Social Media Posts:
Government-aligned media Khmer Times reported that more than 30 “rebels” have been identified by authorities linked to Telegram chats discussing plans for spoiled ballots. The Khmer Times included photos of the so-called “rebels” and their Telegram account number.
Phnom Penh Police Chief Sar Thet confirmed that there were two cases of people in Phnom Penh “invited for questioning” by the Commune Election Committee. He said posting photos of “destroyed ballots” was a violation of article 142 of the NEC’s law and that suspects could face fines between 5 to 20 million riels.
“They take photos [of destroyed ballots] to post on [Facebook or Telegram], this is ,” he said. “Taking photo to post on [Facebook or Telegram] is criminal case,” he said.
He said adding that the authorities are investigating the dozens of people who allegedly used Telegram chats to plan to destroy ballots. He declined to provide further information or confirm the details of the Khmer Times’ reporting. Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak could not be reached for comment.
National Police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun declined to comment.
“At this time I am too busy. I am busy to settle a lot of issues”, he said, hanging up the phone.
3:00 pm: Polls officially close and votes are now being tallied. Final turn-out among 9.7 million registered voters was 78.28% or 7,601,327 people, according to NEC spokesperson Hang Puthea.
2:00 pm: NEC spokesperson Hang Puthea said 77% of registered voters had cast a ballot.
Candlelight Party Leaders Say They Voted, Reluctantly
Former union leader and Candlelight co-vice president Rong Chhun voted earlier today in Kandal province. He told CamboJA that he is going to the polls today to keep his name as a candidate for the future after the government amended election laws to bar non-voters from running for office.
“It is mandatory by law that we can not stand for election in the future [if we do not go to the polls today],” he said. “That is why we came today to stand for election in the future.”
Like Chhun, Candlelight Party’s Chhang Phalla, commune chief of Pdao Chum in Kampong Cham, said he was also voting but only to comply with the electoral law amendments.
“We go because they say if we do not go, we will lose the right in the next term,” he said. “If there was no [amended electoral] law, we would not go to the polls.”
He implied he was not happy with the available alternatives.
“Even if our parents bring us eight girls to choose from, if we do not love them, we will reject them because we would not be happy,” he added.
Meas Sam Ol, a Candlelight party commune councilor in Kampong Cham’s Kchao commune, said that he was planning to vote.
“I understand that this [disqualifying Candlelight Party] is a political intention, but our party is not wrong,” Ol said, pointing out that the Interior Ministry had allowed the party to update its registration and participate in the 2022 commune elections.
Other Candlelight Party leaders also quietly voted, such as co-vice president Son Chhay, who had been sued for $1 million in defamation damages by the CPP and NEC last year. Acting secretary general Kong Monika also told CamboJA that he voted in Prey Veng province just after 2 pm.
1:02 pm: NEC spokesperson Dim Sovannarom said that 72.04% of registered voters had cast a ballot.
Foreign Journalist Alleges Harassment By Authorities
12:46 pm: An international journalist with the Turkish state-media Anadolu Ajansi, Matt Hunt, reported he has faced harassment while covering polling stations. “I’ve been harassed nonstop all day,” he said. However, he noted that government spokesperson Phay Siphan had prevented police from removing him a polling station.
11:46 am: National Election Committee spokesperson Dim Sovannarom told CamboJA that now 64.12% of the country’s approximately 9.7 million registered voters had voted and listed the number of votes cast as more than 6,226,585.
Cambodians Share Mixed Feelings About Elections
You Nimol, 22, said she never attended the election because she doesn’t have an identity card.
“I think the election is important but the thing is I don’t have an Identity card so I can’t vote,” Nimol said. “They give us a choice, but I feel regret because last time we had [a significant opposition party] and now don’t have and now have only the number 9 party [Funcinpec] and the blue party [ruling CPP].”
Prey Veng province voter Yan Chanto, 26, said that he is confident in the electoral process.
“I think the election today is fair and transparent because I see that delegations and observers from different countries come to see the situation of today’s election,” Chanto said. “Going to vote is obligatory for me as a Cambodian citizen and to show that Cambodia is a democratic country.”
He hoped the “future leader” could strengthen social benefits, protect basic human rights, and ensure access to public services.
“Locals must be ensured that they have full rights to air their concerns,” he added.
Phnom Penh resident Sann Kanitha said that although the Candlelight Party will not be on the ballot in 2023, she hopes that the next term of the Candlelight Party will be able to stand for the people who support it to vote.
“Even though the Candlelight Party does not have a name on the ballot now, I hope the next term will have a chance to stand for election,” she said.
A Kandal province voter, Mork Heun, said he used to be critical of the Cambodian government but now that he had arrived to vote in his first election, he felt optimistic. He had lived abroad in the US for decades and said after he returned to Cambodia this year, he believed opposition groups had lied about the state of the country.
“I left my country in 1983 and when I left my country it was just like being out of a box,” he said. Now that he had returned, he said he saw Cambodia had developed significantly.
Phnom Penh resident Choeu Pheng, 42, said that he believes the country’s elections have improved year by year.
“This election will make the country progress from one mandate to one mandate because in the previous time, our country was difficult and now is better,” he said.
Phnom Penh resident Nith Sreylin said that she is happy for the election and she saw that more roads have been constructed than before.
“If the Cambodian People’s Party will win, I want [the authorities] to strengthen the security in my area to be better,” said Sreylin.
Kampong Cham resident Vorn Soksal, 55, says she wants the party that she loves to find “a solution for expanding the market for agricultural products during the harvest season.”
“Because I am a farmer who struggles to make a living, but if prices fall, there is no market, I don’t have the energy to continue my job,” he said. “I hope they support local production, reduce vegetable imports from neighboring countries, while local goods have no market, I believe they help farmers at this point.”
Another Kampong Cham resident, Ek Sokhuoy, 22, said she came to vote in this mandate voluntarily and wants the party that provides support to help farmers deal with inflation.
“I saw my mom and other farmers [go into debt] to buy herbicides as well as expensive pesticides and fuel for irrigation of agricultural crops such as corn, soybeans, sesame, tobacco,” she said.
Phnom Penh resident Loch Sodanin, 41, said she came to the polls because she wanted a candidate who could lead the economy and said she accepted the elections without Candlelight’s participation.
“I think it’s normal, even without the Candlelight Party, I already have a party I love,” Loch said.
11:25 am: National Election Committee spokesperson Hang Puthea told CamboJA that about 48.55% of the country’s approximately 9.7 million registered voters had voted. He said the highest turnout had been in Prey Veng province so far.
Regarding allegations of spoiled ballots posted on social media, Puthea stated: “First, what is posted on Facebook, we do not know to be sure or not certain, but those who intend to destroy the ballot are in violation of the law.”
International Observers with Cambodian Government Ties Present at Polling Stations:
Embassy officials from Japan, Australia, France and the U.S. have said they would not be sending election observers to the national election, and the U.N. and the U.S. have publicly criticized the fairness of the election. Two of the country’s leading human rights organizations, Adhoc and Licadho, said they did not plan to meet with any international observers.
But citizens from France, the Philippines, Azerbaijan and Korea have been spotted by CamboJA reporters at polling locations serving as election observers.
“We are coming to observe, this is our mission,” said Jacques R. Marien with the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP), who was present at Tuol Kork Primary School’s polling station this morning. He did not respond to questions about the disqualification of the Candlelight Party or harassment of opposition activists or voters.
At the same polling station was Patricia Marie Raynaud Lalonde of IAPP, who enthusiastically proclaimed that she was representing “Europe!” when asked by a CamboJA reporter. She resigned as a member of the European Parliament in 2018 following a controversy related to a trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union.
Universal Peace Federation (UPF) representative Pelita D. Zaraspe from the Philippines was also at the polling site. The organization is affiliated with the controversial Unification Church, also known as the Moonies, which has held mass weddings of thousands of couples matched by the church.
The Cambodian government and the UPF co-hosted a 2019 summit in coordination with IAPP in which Prime Minister Hun Sen gave a speech and was recognized with a “Leadership and Good Governance” award.
Both the UPF and IAPP representatives said they were on a joint mission with the Cambodian think tank Asian Vision Institute (AVI). Zaraspe’s ID badge stated she was with both UPF and AVI.
AVI’s leadership has close ties to the Cambodian government.
AVI’s chairman Sok Siphana is a senior advisor to Cambodia’s government, according to AVI’s website, and was part of a government delegation that met with the European Union during negotiations over its plans to withdraw from Everything But Arms tariff preferences in 2019. AVI’s president Chheang Vannarith is a former advisor to Cambodia’s defense minister Tea Banh, while executive vice-president Chheng Kimlong says in his bio that he has “extensively” worked with Cambodian government ministries.
An Azerbaijani delegation of election observers also arrived in the morning at the Veal Sbov pagoda polling location in Chbar Ampov district, Phnom Penh.
“We don’t observe the political situation, we come to see the process for voters,” said Ramin Mammadov, a member of parliament of Azerbaijan and an international election observer with the Non-Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network. He would not comment on the recent arrests of Candlelight Party members or harassment reported leading up to the election.
National Election Committee spokesperson Dim Sovannarom told a CamboJA reporter this morning that the international criticism over the elections, and the US and EU’s decision to not send their own election monitors, was a “double standard.” He dismissed criticism from these governments and the international community over the Candlelight Party’s disqualification.
“The Candlelight Party cannot be registered. The mistake is not my mistake, because [the party] does not have the necessary documents,” he said, citing the NEC’s official reasoning for disqualifying the main opposition party. “What do you want me to do? What do you want Cambodians to do? Apply the law or ignore the law?”
11:05 am: A bodyguard for Funcinpec president Prince Chakravuth repeatedly threatened to slap a CamboJA reporter for taking photos earlier this morning.
Reports of Spoiled Ballots Circulate on Social Media
10:42 am: Reports of spoiled ballots have been posted on social media by well known opposition figures abroad, such as Sam Rainsy and Cham Channy. Some had large Xs slashed across and another included a swear word.
Former Candlelight Party commune councilor Kung Raiya, who briefly joined the CPP before quitting last week and applying for political asylum with the UN, also posted a photo of a spoiled ballot on his Facebook page.
Four Candlelight Party officials were arrested for allegedly inciting spoiled ballots in the last month. Seventeen opposition members were also fined and banned from holding elected office for at least 20 years after being convicted in absentia of inciting voters to spoil their ballots.
Election law amendments were hastily passed a month before the election, with criticism from civil service organizations. Less than two weeks ago the NEC warned the public that it would take legal action against people encouraging others to spoil their ballots.
National Election Committee Claims “Double Standard” in Face of Criticism
9:58 am: “All the electors, they come to vote smoothly, freely, and you don’t see any incidents, any intimidation,” said National Election Committee spokesperson Dim Sovannarom at the polling location at Toul Kirk Primary School earlier this morning.
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published earlier this month found evidence that suggested vote tampering and election fraud possibly occurred in the 2022 commune elections, based on a review of publicly available polling station results forms from Phnom Penh. The irregularities included votes incorrectly added up on forms in 19% of polling stations and corrections or crossed-out sections on forms in 15% of stations. Additionally, 44% of polling stations only had CPP-aligned election observers present.
When asked about HRW’s findings, Sovannarom referred to his government agency’s official response. Two days before election day, the NEC conceded there were “mistakes” and “flaws in the vote counting operations.” However, the NEC said the mistakes were not “severe irregularities” and did not affect election results.
9:12am: Voters look at the names on the voter list at a polling site in Tboung Khmum province’s Kouch Chhmar district. (CamboJA/Runn Sreydeth)
The Prince Casts His Vote
9:03 am: Funcinpec president Prince Norodom Chakravuth arrives to cast his ballot at the Veal Sbov polling station in Phnom Penh. He is followed by former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana Arango, an election observer.
Funcinpec had received 1.27% of the vote in the commune election’s last year, but is the largest political party allowed to participate in the elections after the ruling CPP.
“In order to let things work, the important thing is that I need a seat. I ask the NEC [National Election Committee], please be honest with us, I told the NEC that it is so important because it is our Khmer life,” Chakravuth said on Friday at his final campaign rally.
“The important thing is helping people who are miserable. I am the grandson of Loung Ta [Prince Norodom Sihanouk], I will protect my people,” he added.
9:00am: Voters lined up at a polling station in Prey Veng province’s Peam Ro district. (CamboJA/ Eung Sea)
International Observers Wear Cambodian Government-Affiliated ID Badges
8:50am: Two Korean nationals, Ryu Seung Ryoul and Hwang Jong Kion, were at the polling site at Tuol Kork Primary School wearing international observer badges issued by the NEC. But the organization they are with is Civil Society Alliance Forum, a Cambodian government-affiliated institution. They said they have no Korean organization affiliation and were invited by the Cambodian government.
“People are very free and they felt very safe and when I observed it was very safe,” Ryu Seung Ryoul said.
Two of the country’s leading human rights organizations, Licadho and Adhoc, said they did not plan to meet with any international election observers. Embassy officials from Japan, Australia, and the U.S. have said they are not sending election observers to the election, and the U.N. and the U.S. have publicly criticized the fairness of the election.
Voters dip their fingers in indelible ink to cast their ballots.
8:21am: Voters lined up at a polling station Veal Sbov pagoda, Chbar Ampov district where prince Norodom Charavuth, president of Funcinpect would vote. (CamboJA/ Andrew Califf)
8:03 am: Hun Manet and his wife Pich Chanmony vote at the Tuol Kork Primary School polling station in Phnom Penh.
8:01 am: The media awaits the arrival of Hun Manet and his wife Pich Chanmony to vote in Phnom Penh.
8:00am: Hun Manet, the ruling CPP’s top candidate for Phnom Penh, arrives at his polling station at Tuol Kork Primary School. He declined to speak with reporters. His father, Prime Minister Hun Sen, said Hun Manet could take over as Prime Minister within a month.
After casting his ballot, Interior Minister and President of the Security Council for Elections Sar Kheng said: “I think the overall picture [of all political parties’ campaigns] has been good and I hope that today there will be no problems and that these elections can be considered in line with the principles of multi-party liberal democracy in Cambodia.”
7:14 am: Prime Minister Hun Sen votes at a polling station in Ta Khmao in Kandal province. (Sovann Sreypich)
7:07am: Voters lined up where Hun Manet, the ruling CPP’s top candidate for Phnom Penh. (Khy Sovuthy)
7:00am: 90-year-old woman kicks off voting at Tuol Kork Primary School where Hun Manet, the ruling CPP’s top candidate for Phnom Penh. (CamboJA/Jack Brook)
6:49am: Voters are already lined up at Tuol Kork Primary School where Hun Manet, the ruling CPP’s top candidate for Phnom Penh, is expected to vote. (CamboJA/Jack Brook)
