Election Results?

The 5th ever national elections took place last Sunday July 28th. Registered voters, numbering over 9.7 million people, returned to their home towns to vote from 7am to 3pm and the unofficial results were announced on the news around 8:30pm. The month leading up to the vote was full of rallies and the week before was marked by a uptick in the campaigning including the return of the opposition figure-head (the CNRP president) Sam Rainsy, who had been in self-imposed exile in France, after gaining a royal pardon, although he was not allowed to be in the running. This 11th hour return seemed to kick things up a notch. But 24 hours before the vote, the campaigning stopped and there was a weird quiet that swept the nation. Some PCVs commented that it felt like the calm before the storm. The news leading up to the election was full of speculation about how the parties and people would respond to different results. Despite claims from the ruling party (CPP) and the major opposition party (CNRP) that the results could lead to war or violence, the country has seen limited violent episodes. On election day some violence broke out at a polling station (a wat) in an area of Phnom Penh when names were found missing from the voter list. Photos on the Cambodia Daily (English newspaper) website showed military vehicles overturned and in flame, and monks kicking and hitting people. 

Conversation about the election continues days after the vote. The unofficial results had the CPP winning by a relatively narrow margin: 68 to 55 seats in the National Assembly, and keeping the CPP in power for another 5 years. The international community which had noted that if the elections were not deemed free and fair aid to Cambodia would be cut significantly (http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/congressional-hearing-in-us-pushes-cut-to-cambodian-aid-34389/), seemed content with this result. However, the CNRP has called for a recount and on Tuesday issued their own results which had the opposition winning 63 to 60. Hun Sen has said that he is open to an investigation of the election results. So when will the country have the official results? Maybe mid-August. Seems like a long time to wait and that more speculation will follow for the next few weeks as the political situation of Cambodia remains up in the air, while people continue to go about their everyday lives.

I was in Phnom Penh during election weekend. Why? Well despite Peace Corps' travel ban and call for PCVs to remain vigilant at site, mosquitoes at my site had a different agenda. The weekend before the election I came down with a nasty fever and was told by the medical officer to come to Phnom Penh because I had the symptoms of Dengue. And what is Dengue you ask? A mosquito-born tropical disease like malaria except that there is no medication or cure. Cambodian adults rarely contract Dengue. It is commonly believed that only children get it, so my host family was confused as to how I got malaria although I am taking malaria medication. Trying to explain that I had Dengue not malaria was a bit tricky, especially when 2 weeks before my 11 year old host cousin explained that you can get Dengue from eating too many longan (a fruit in the same family as lychee). When I asked who told her that, she said she heard if from our host grandma (yeay). An example of medical misinformation that I encounter in my work as a community health educator. 

So I was holed up in a guest house room with Dengue during the election. While I seemed to miss the excitement of the election, the conversation has continued via the news as Cambodia awaits the official results. Although people seem to have gone back to their everyday lives, every index finger stained black with ink is an indication of Cambodians' participation in the shaping of their country's future.