The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Kampong Cham comes out for CNRP” plus 9 more

The relative calm that presided at polling places in Kampong Cham on Sunday belied the heavyweight political battle fought for the province's 18 seats – the most of any province.

When the dust settled, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party had come out on top – and decisively so – taking 10 seats to the Cambodian People Party's 8, and leaving royalists Funcinpec completely out in the cold.

However, turnout was low, as it was across the rest of the country. Sok Chhin, deputy director of Kampong Cham's provincial election committee, said that of the province's 1.28 million registered voters, only 69 per cent actually cast a ballot, though he didn't know why, he added.

It certainly wasn't for lack of big-name candidates.

The CNRP's Kem Sokha, Funcinpec's Norodom Arun Reaksmey and the CPP's Heng Samrin – all of whom are in the highest levels of leadership in their respective parties – ran for seats in Kampong Cham, and all three arrived to vote Sunday morning, delivering impromptu predictions to a throng of media with varying degrees of accuracy.

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Sokha – the CNRP's highest-ranking member to actually cast a vote – had high expectations for his party, saying he hoped the united opposition would pick up 12 seats, and going on to turn an assessment of the ruling party's chances into an oblique criticism of the polls' much-lambasted "indelible" ink.

"If the voting is fair, they cannot get 11 seats," he said from the courtyard of a local school. "When the two [opposition] parties were not joined, the CPP got 11 seats, so if they still get 11 seats, it means that they stole them. And they can steal them, as I said, when they can clean the black ink [from their fingers] so they can vote twice."

CPP honorary president Samrin, however, was – as it turns out, wrongly – dismissive of the opposition's influence in the province, predicting that the party would handily hold the 11 seats it currently occupies.

"I believe that the CPP will receive 11 seats for this election," said the diminutive Samrin, completely blocked from view by a scrum of reporters. "Even though the CNRP has some supporters, they cannot receive more seats than the CPP."

Funcinpec president Arun Reaksmey, for her part, was decidedly more modest, but her hopes of winning two seats still overshot the mark.

Despite the party's well-documented fall from grace, pockets of support for Funcinpec still existed, especially among older generations. For 74-year-old voter Dul Chhin, the wounds of the Lon Nol coup in 1970 are still fresh.

"I'm still angry with the Lon Nol regime," he said on Sunday, lighting a cigarette after casting his vote. "The king had a lot of support, so why did they do that?"

The opposition also held little allure for Chhin, who maintained that "Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy… don't have power, but when they get it, they'll do the same as Hun Sen".

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On the other side of the generational and political divide, was 29-year-old Sok Dara, who said it was precisely the differences between the opposition and the ruling party that made him change his mind after voting CPP in 2008.

"The reason that I came to vote is that I just want to change the leaders," Dara said, noting that the sentiment was widely shared by his friends and co-workers. "It's been 30 years already, and we're still not developed."

"If Kem Sokha wins, I hope they'll develop the country more," he added, standing in the courtyard where Sokha had delivered his remarks to the press moments earlier.

According to Dara, it was a closer look at the parties that prompted his change of heart in this mandate.

"Before, I voted for the CPP, but I didn't know their policy is," he said. "But now that I know every party's policy, I changed to the CNRP."

But the opposition did not have a monopoly on youth support in Kampong Cham. Student Huy Dlan, 23, was proof positive of the nigh-insurmountable impact of the ruling party's deep pockets.

"A good leader knows about the people's pain. If the people have a problem, they should go down and talk to them," she said.

"I will vote for the CPP because they can develop the country … and they pay the fee for my school," she added.

The CNRP's Sokha has himself used education to gain a foothold among youth in Kampong Cham town, where he has operated a free school for several years.

Opposition promises to raise civil servant wages, however, had no draw for policeman Oum Sophat, who was paid $2 by the NEC to work security at a polling station. According to the opposition's stated aim of raising the minimum wage of civil servants to $250 a month, a policeman like Sophat would earn roughly $8 for a day's work.

Nonetheless, he said, "I don't care about what the CNRP said about the minimum wage."

Sophat declined to say who he would be voting for, however.

All told, the opposition's foothold has long been growing in Kampong Cham. It has steadily improved its position over the course of the past three elections, practically in tandem with royalist parties' waning returns.

In 2007's commune elections, the Sam Rainsy Party won 29 per cent of the vote, with 12 per cent going to royalist parties. In 2008's national elections, the SRP and the then-new Human Rights Party won a combined 36 per cent, compared to the royalists' 10. Last year, commune elections saw that gain solidified, with the SRP and HRP taking 40 per cent of the vote, leaving a scant 6 per cent to the royalists.

Those trends held fast on Sunday. At the Teak Ksen polling station, in dingy schoolrooms adorned with posters depicting the five senses and the technique for a proper sompeah, there was a palpable sense of giddiness among onlookers as election officials called out each vote.

Calls of the CNRP's leik prampi quickly overtook the ruling party's leik boon – respectively, No 4 and No 7, the positions each party were placed on the ballot – and they held strong. At the end of the tally, the station – like so many others across the province – had gone to the opposition.

It is important to recognise that the government remains in power with a comfortable, if reduced majority.... And it would be lacking in realism to think Hun Sen and his associates will not seek to find ways to maintain their grip on power, if necessary by changed policies.

Princess Norodom Vacheahra, half-sister of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk, passed away in Paris on Sunday night at the age of 68, royal officials said.

The body of the princess will be repatriated from France to Cambodia for a funeral.

Prince Sisowath Thomico said she had been in France receiving medical treatment for lung cancer since 2008.

The fifth committee president of the second National Assembly in 1998 and a lawmaker in 2003, the princess was fluent in four languages and obtained a graduate diploma in modern literature from the University of Toulouse in 1966. The princess also graduated from the Institute of Political Sciences.

A royal dancer, the late princess founded the humanitarian association Cambodge 2000 and the Association of Khmer Classical Ballet.

"Her death is a great loss to human resources in Cambodia. In the name of the royal family, I feel deep regret and sadness for the sad news," Prince Thomico said.

Chris Leyland had forgotten about Cambodia's national elections when he made plans to travel into Phnom Penh from Vietnam with Jess Jackson, 34, and her two children.

Had Leyland, a 41-year-old from Oxford, UK, remembered that it wasn't going to be a normal weekend in Cambodia, he would have rescheduled the Phnom Penh trip as a precaution, because "you never know what could happen".

Jackson said they had "heard rumours of incidents but haven't seen anything", and despite the concern, were curious about the results and its implications.

Referring to the Cambodian People's Party banner showing Senate president Chea Sim, Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly president Heng Samrin, one of Jackson's kids asked: "Is that the one with the three men?"

Tourists like Leyland and Jackson found themselves bearing witness to a significant moment in Cambodian history this weekend. After weeks of exciting rallies and campaigns, preliminary election results on Sunday showed that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party nearly doubled its seats in the National Assembly.

Bouts of Election Day violence were reported in the city, and the US embassy reissued a travel warning online to "avoid areas prone to gatherings, and immediately vacate any area where crowds are gathering".

Despite tension, though, many tourists are facing the election with interest rather than fear, and government and private sector representatives have attributed any drop in arrivals to the low season, not mounting election anxiety.

Operations at Phnom Penh International Airport ran as usual on Sunday, with no implication on air traffic

Sam Basford, who has been in Phnom Penh since the beginning of July, said it was "really nice to see the freedom of expression in the rally and young Cambodians caring about the [political] system".

The 46-year-old from East Sussex in the UK said she doesn't feel unsafe because "tourists are not the target".

Her monthlong trip to visit a friend working in Phnom Penh seems to have opened up a window for her into Cambodian politics.

"The results show there needs to be changes," she said.

Graham Parker, 50, from England, said he isn't concerned about safety in the city during their 12-day trip in Cambodia.

Parker and his family of five landed in Phnom Penh at midnight, hours after results were announced. He said he was aware that elections were taking place but knew little in the way of detailed information.

Not everyone is going about their vacation unconcerned.

Steven Mam, 45, a Cambodian-American from California, said the US embassy has been vague on what will happen should riots and protests break out, and he was walking from Wat Phnom yesterday afternoon on his way to the embassy to find out.

"Safety is OK [now], but it's not going to stay safe," said Mam, who will be in Phnom Penh for one more week.

As a tourist, the American embassy can protect him, but he said he is worried about the safety of his Cambodian friends and family.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ANNE RENZENBRINK

As election data trickled in on Sunday evening and a fear set in borne of uncertainty and a beefed-up police presence, demand for basic commodities surged, food prices briefly rose, and some banks saw an expected rise in withdrawals.

Sales of rice jumped from their normal volume on Sunday, shop owners said yesterday, and prices of noodles doubled amid an election climate that drove up costs of food staples.

Hang Savon, the owner of a rice shop in Phnom Penh, said yesterday that on Sunday evening he had many customers asking for rice and even received phone calls asking for him to quote prices, apparently out of fear that costs had spiked.

"Many people looked more rushed than normal when it came to buying rice," he said, adding that in two hours, he sold one tonne.

Like others interviewed yesterday, he said a calmer mood prevailed after preliminary election results came in late on Sunday and that prices and volume started to stabilise yesterday.

Initial numbers showed that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party took home 55 seats out of the 123 up for grabs in the National Assembly; the remaining 68 were swept up by the ruling Cambodian People's Party in an election marred by allegations of names deleted from voter lists and other forms of disenfranchisement.

Though the opposition nearly doubled its share of seats, party leaders have rejected the figures and called for an investigation.

Logisitics, not fear alone, caused increased demand, as shop owners had not returned from voting in the provinces yet and the availability of goods was not as widespread.

"There will be more sellers and buyers tomorrow because many will arrive in Phnom Penh this evening," said Som Chhay, the owner of a dried fish shop at O'Russey market.

As reports of small-scale rioting and increased security poured in, lines formed at ACLEDA bank branches in the city on Sunday night, and some ATMs were emptied before being refilled yesterday.

The panic spread, and a handful of customers lined up were only doing so because they saw others taking money out and grew worried.

Leang Seangly, a 51-year-old businessman who sells construction material, said he withdrew $1,000 on Sunday from an ACLEDA ATM in Por Sen Chey district.

"I came to withdraw money following them because I see they are surprised and withdrew money, because we don't know the situation," he said.

ANZ Royal Bank CEO Grant Knuckey said that branches did see increased withdrawals over the weekend, but that there weren't significant differences on Saturday and Sunday.

"This morning, we have been trading as normal at all of our branches, and have replenished ATM cash where necessary," he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RANN REUY

Both outstanding loans and savings deposits in 35 microfinance institutions (MFIs) continued to grow from January through to June this year, according to the latest report from the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA).

By the end of the first half of this year, total loans from MFIs reached $1.08 billion, up from $808 million at the end of 2012. Deposits in the seven microfinance institutions licensed to take them grew to $377.7 million, up from $224.7 million at the end of the last year.

Experts in the microfinance sector said the rise was due to continued business activity in rural areas and a broadening awareness of formal financial services.

CMA president Bun Mony, who is also the general manager at Sathapana Limited, said loans for small businesses and farmers also contributed significantly.

"The economic situation in rural areas continued on a stable path, and the demand for capital to invest grew. We were very surprised with the high growth rates," he said.

According to a report from CMA, most borrowers from the institutions are not running into trouble meeting payments. Non-performing loans, or those that are at risk of not being paid back, amounted to $4 million, only 3 per cent of the total.

Out of the total $1.08 billion in outstanding loans, the report shows that the microfinance institution Prasac provided $301 million, Amret microfinance $174 million and $139 million came from Sathapana Limited. Hathakasekar Limited lent $113 million of the total, and AMK, the fifth largest institution, put out $69 million.

Din Virak, founder and director of the consultancy Capital Institute, said more savings at MFIs will enable them to provide more loans.

"If the trend keeps up, it will contribute to lower interest rates," he said.

Sim Senacheat, chief executive officer of Prasac, said deposits jumped during the first half of 2013 because of stronger customer confidence in microfinance and modernised banking services like ATMs.

"Former customers increased the size of their loans more than before, and we're getting more new customers than we used to," he said.

'Kap Yuon! Kap Yuon!" My mother grabbed me and my younger siblings by the collar, dragging us out of bed in the middle of night. We were half-asleep, barefoot, crying hysterically as we ran to the back of the house towards the corn field.

There, together with a few cousins, my paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles, we stayed until morning, when it was clear that it was safe to go back into the house. This was the summer of 1977. I was 12 years old.

This year's election rhetoric, particularly from Sam Rainsy's Cambodia National Rescue Party, has not been a galvanising force for all. Yesterday, that rhetoric became tangible in the form of angry crowds intent on keeping "outsiders" from casting their ballots.

And for me, it has brought long-suppressed memories flooding back.

The villages and towns along the Cambodia-Vietnam border, Takeo province on one side and An Giang province on the other, have been home to my father's large, extended family since the mid-19th century or so.

I grew up hearing Vietnamese and Khmer greetings interchangeably. Both prahok and fish sauce course through my veins.

We were farmers and fishers native to the region. We crossed the border without passports. Ethnically, we were Vietnamese, but many also self-identified as Khmers, either by birth or through marriage.

Growing up, I would occasionally hear the adults use the phrase "kap Yuon", but never quite understood what it meant until the spring of 1970. (Kap means cut or chop and Yuon refers to ethnic Vietnamese, often in a derogatory manner, akin to the 'N-word' in the US.)

All of a sudden we were forbidden to go to the river. For kids, the river was an endless source of fun, from fishing to taking a dip on a hot day.

Of course, we snuck down to the river to find out why we couldn't. There we saw bodies, headless and dismembered, including women and children, floating down from Cambodia.

Many had been tied together to long bamboo sticks. Some even had stakes driven through their bodies like a snakehead fish ready for grilling.

At the same time, relatives began to arrive by boats in large number. They had either been forced out or run for their lives as the Lon Nol regime's crazed soldiers went on Vietnamese killing sprees, or kap Yuon.

All told, thousands were killed and some 200,000 were expelled. The majority of these Vietnamese, like my relatives, had been born and grew up in Cambodia, the only country they knew.

Prior to the summer of 1977, the border village next to Cambodia had been evacuated after repeated raids by the Khmer Rouge, who killed everyone and burned everything to the ground, including livestock – cows, pigs, chickens.

All by machetes. My grandparents' village was another 15 minutes away on motorbike, but a canal separating Cambodia from Vietnam had been dug, creating a buffer zone between villagers and the machete-wielding, marauding Khmer Rouge.

However, throughout the summer there had been raids in the middle of the night that Vietnamese soldiers couldn't stop.

The Khmer Rouge would hide submerged in large hyacinth flotillas, floating down the Mekong, then randomly came ashore and killed everyone and everything. They'd burned the villages to the ground then disappeared back into the Mekong.

Without roads and cars, the waterway was our only escape route, but now that was no longer available. We were ready to abandon our land, with crops not yet harvested, and livestock that no one wanted to buy anymore.

We lived in terror not knowing if our village would be next. The thought of being hacked to death was the most terrifying prospect. This was terrorism at its core.

Luckily that night turned out to be a false alarm. A night fisherman thought he had spotted someone emerging from of those hyacinth piles.

However, we eventually had to abandon our land because the fighting soon broke out between Vietnamese troops and the Khmer Rouge, with bullets and guns.

The 20th century wasn't so kind to the people of Cambodia – unspeakable atrocities visited this beautiful and peaceful kingdom.

The history between the Vietnamese and the Khmer people reminisces that of many between the conquering and the vanquished throughout human history. Unfortunately, the Khmer people's pain and suffering have been manipulated for political gain, whipped into xenophobic rhetoric.

The Vietnamese people, whether native to Cambodia or recently arrived, have become scapegoats, part of the Khmer people's victimhood narrative.

It's time for the people of Cambodia, especially the post-Khmer Rouge generations, to expect more from their leaders and demand substantive changes to address their daily needs and concerns instead of blaming the Yuon for everything that ails Cambodia.

The Vietnamese in Cambodia today have nothing to do with what happened more than 400 years ago.

Sonny Le teaches communications classes for San Francisco State University's nonprofit management program.

China's Sun Yang matched a feat previously achieved only by Australian Grant Hackett and American teenager Katie Ledecky, becoming the second-fastest woman ever with victories in the men's and women's 400-metre freestyle at the world swimming championships on Sunday.

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Sun, 22, the Olympic champion in London last year, equalled Hackett in claiming world titles at 400m, 800m and 1500m, while 16-year-old Ledecky became only the second woman after Italian world record holder Federica Pellegrini to break four minutes.

The opening day of competition in the specially constructed pool at Barcelona's hilltop Palau Sant Jordi was a triumph for the United States, who also took gold in the women's 4x100m relay and silver in the men's race behind France.

While Sun's three titles in the longer freestyle events have come at two different championships – he won the 800m and 1500m in Shanghai two years ago and was second in the 400m – he remains on course to repeat Hackett's three golds from the 2005 edition in Montreal.

He led the 400 from the start on Sunday, pulling inexorably away and touching in a time of three minutes 41.59 seconds.

Japanese teenager Kosuke Hagino took silver, more than three seconds behind Sun in 3:44.82, and American Connor Jaeger, 22, won the bronze in 3:44:85.

"In the last year I experienced many things and I still managed to win my gold medal," Sun told reporters.

Ledecky, a gold medallist over 800 metres in London in the first major event of her career, leaped out of the water and punched the air after she secured the first US 400m freestyle gold since Janet Evans in 1991 and smashed the American record by nearly two seconds.

She was initially on course to break Pellegrini's world best of 3:59.15 but slipped off the pace in the final 100 metres to finish in a time of 3:59.82.

"I just got into it, and I'm still in shock over the time," Ledecky told reporters. "I didn't know really how fast I was going but it just shows what happens when you get in a race with the best in the world."

Spain's Melanie Costa Schmid gave the home supporters something to cheer by taking silver in 4:02.47 and Lauren Boyle of New Zealand was third in 4:03.89, the first woman to win a medal for the nation at a world championships.

Olympic champion Camille Muffat of France finished a disappointing seventh.

The popular 4x100m freestyle relay events, bringing the evening's racing to a close, got the crowd on their feet.

The French men were given vocal support from a sizeable contingent of their flag-waving compatriots, who watched their heroes storm from behind to see off the United States, Russia and Australia.

Olympic champions in London last year, France were fourth when Jeremy Stravius dived into the water for the final leg but he hauled in American James Feigen, Russia's Danila Izotov and James Roberts of Australia to touch in three minutes 11.18 seconds.

The United States matched their silver from London in a time of 3:11.42 and Russia pipped Australia to the bronze in 3:11.44.

It was France's first world championship gold in the event and they went one better than the silver they won in Shanghai.

"Our strategy paid off," Fabien Gilot, who swam the third leg, told reporters. "It was like being at home with all the French supporters."

Megan Romano swam a blistering final leg to overhaul Australia's tiring Alicia Coutts and snatch relay gold for the American women and improve on their silver behind Netherlands in Shanghai.

Australia, Olympic champions in London last year, led until the final 50 metres through Cate Campbell, her sister Bronte and Emma McKeon but Romano was too strong for Coutts, who swam in the 100 butterfly and 200 medley semi-finals only hours before the relay final.

Romano came home in 3:32.31, with the Australians finishing in 3:32.43 and the Netherlands, who pipped the US to silver in London, were third in 3:35.77.

Cambodia's Pu Sovichea finished 45th out of 48 swimmers in the men's 400m freestyle heats on Sunday, 38 seconds off the pace of champion Sun Yang.

Hem Thon Ponleu is next up for the Kingdom, racing in today's men's 50m breaststroke heats.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DAN RILEY

The French and Cambodian boxing federations have joined forces to send six Cambodian fighters to France, where they are to train and compete against European and Asian opponents between November and next April.

According to Paris-based coach Hou Sothy, the technical director of the Cambodian Boxing Federation's France department, the fighters were selected from 16 hopefuls to appear in kickboxing bouts in cities across France.

The list includes Battambang Club's Yuk Yeak (57kg), Roeung Sophon of Macoch Reachsey Club (63.5kg), No 31 Brigade Club's Vong Noy (67kg), Yen Dina (60kg) and Sen Rady (55kg), both of Apsara Kun Khmer Club, and Ministry of Interior Club's Sen Bunthen (72kg).

The boxers will receive $600 for each match and are slated to fight twice a month, according to CBF president in France Moen Se Sara.

Five of the Football Federation of Cambodia's match officials have been invited to officiate games at upcoming international tournaments, according to the FFC. Referee Thoung Chan Kitsha and assistant ref Kim Pisal will call matches at the Asian Youth Games from August 13-23 in Nanjing, China, after receiving invites from the Asian Football Confederation.

Thoung will also adjudicate Group G ties of the AFC U16 Championships in Hong Kong from September 21-29.

Invitations from the ASEAN Football Federation have seen referee assistant Si Pisal and referee evaluator Toy Bunthoeun given the nod for appearances at the AFF U19 Championships in Indonesia from September 9-25, while referee Tuy Vichheka and assistant ref Sor Chob Veasna are bound for the AFF U16 Championship in Naypyidaw from August 20 to September 2.