A social media claim said on Sunday that about 50 percent of Cambodia’s total voters turned out for the 2022 commune election last Sunday. It has been reacted to with mixed comments and shared by Facebook users who are speaking Khmer. However, after checking the announcement and report confirmed by the National Election Committee (NEC), it proves that the claim made above is misleading.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
On June 5, 2022, one of the Facebook users recently claimed that about 50 percent of the population did not vote due to various reasons. The same Facebook user posted the claim along with a photo depicting Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife casting ballots in a metal box at a polling station. Such claims have been widely shared by Facebook users, while many other Facebook users have also expressed mixed opinions and reactions.
The following screenshot picture was captured from the user’s post above translated in English as “about 50% of the people did not vote, some did not go to the polls, some did not have the right to vote, some did not have their names on the list, some were in prisons abroad and Others are being held hostage by Hun Sen, such as Kem Sokha’s group”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia began to examine the claims posted above by verifying the announcement of the National Election Committee (NEC) leading us to find the following facts.
The official Facebook page of the NEC published on June 6th, confirmed that the number of people who went to vote for the Commune / Sangkat Council in 2022 is about 80.19 percent of the total number of voters. The 5th Commune / Sangkat Council Election is a local election for a total of more than 10,000 Commune / Sangkat Councilors across the country, including approximately 1,652 Commune / Sangkat Chiefs. The official results of the election will be announced on June 26th.
Below is the screenshot photo captured from the NEC Facebook page which has shown the data on the number of people who went to the polls at the local level to elect commune councils in the fifth mandate.
A report on the number of people going to the polls in 2022 has also been made public on the NEC website. Below is a picture from the website above about the initial total number of people who went to the polls on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
National Election Committee | Archived Link
Similarly, in a press conference after the vote count, Mr. Prach Chan, Chairman of the NEC, reported that the number of people who went to the polls in the 5th mandate was 7,172,448, equivalent to 77.91 percent of the 9.2 million registered voters.
Below was a video clip of the NEC chairman during the press conference.
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer Language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia finds that the above-mentioned claims are misleading. According to NEC, the number of people who went to the polls for the 5th mandate was 7,382,449, or 80.19 percent of the 9.2 million people on the voter list.
Title:About 80% of Voters Turned Out for the 2022 Commune Election
Fact Check By: Kakada SimResult: Misleading
