Partyforumseasia: Before the election there was already confusion about the voters lists. Some were too short, many voters were missing, some others were too long, with possible phantom voters. There were many suspicions that the ruling CPP would use the normal tricks to manipulate the outcome of the election which it could not afford to lose. The official observer teams, not all from very democratic countries, were as ineffective as they normally are. But this time a range of civil society initiatives tried to uncover irregularities. In part 2 of his observations, Max Grömping from The Electoral Integrity Project supplies us with a very interesting assessment how civic election observation works and where its limitations are.

Look up the whole report at the following LINK:

Partyforumseasia: As expected, the CPP has retained majority and power, but the opposition has improved from 29 to 55 out of 123 seats. That is a great victory on the background of much confusion about irregularities with the voter lists and washable indelible ink. More analysis will follow when the dust settles.

Read more in the Phnom Penh Post of 29th July 2013:

Partyforumseasia: The triumphant return from exile of opposition leader Sam Rainsy last week and the increased visibility of young anti-CPP campaigners in Phnom Penh and bigger cities has tempted many foreign journalists to predict a sea change in Cambodia’s politics. Partyforumseasia has been more cautious in view of the overwhelming control of the country by Prime Minister Hun Sen and his CPP. Some gains of the opposition, more united at last, should be possible, though. But recent reports about discrepancies in the voters lists do not augur well for a clean procedure. Under-registration and intimidation of known opposition voters have been common before, over-registration in other constituencies may mean that “ghost voters” can tip the balance decisively. These ghosts have been haunting other countries in the region as well.

For an excellent and balanced overview of the newest developments see Max Grömping’s report under The Electoral Integrity Project:
Link: http://electoralintegrity.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/the-2013-cambodian-election-part-1-menu.html