Election Day: Counting

The big board

The polling stations were open 7:00AM to 3:00PM. After closing they become counting stations where that ballots are tallied. Most of the polling stations I visited were busy in the morning and very slow in the afternoon. I stopped at several stations after lunch. All were quiet, with only the occasional voter wandering in.

At the end of the polling day I stopped at a station in Baray commune (Prey Veng), a rural area where the CPP ordinarily does well. The station was located in a school room near two other school room polling  stations. I asked the chairman of the station if I might photograph the counting process from outside through one of the windows. She smiled slyly and said "Do you want to make sure I do my job right?" I told her that I wasn't checking her work but found the process interesting and thought other people might be interested in seeing photographs of it. She eyed me in half belief and said, "OK, you come in," politely but formally escorting me to the observer's table inside the station.

The station closed promptly at 3:00PM with the chairperson ceremoniously announcing the end of voting, ordering the station door closed and shutting the ballot box slot herself. The station staff then began to prepare for the count - sealing the ballot box, converting the polling station into a counting station, re-opening the ballot box and readying the ballots, then beginning the count. Local people lingered in the windows and doorway for the duration, watching the proceedings. At one point the chairman ordered the windows shut to minimize disturbances from the outside, but the room became too dark, so the windows were opened again and local people returned to watching from outside.

Today's count, with 'number 4' (CPP) and 'number 7' (CNRP) running neck-and-neck the whole time, was riveting. The first ballot was a 4. And so were the next two. Then one 7, followed by a few more 4s. And just as I was beginning to think that the traditional wisdom about the election might hold, there were a series of 7s that put 7 and 4 back within a few votes of each other. And so it was for the rest of the count - always close but CNRP never quite catching up, or at least never for long. The only thing that broke the flow was the rare, jarring number of some other party. In the end, number 4 won, but not by much - 230 to 207. The two nearby polling stations were even closer, with 4 winning by 15 votes at one station and 7 winning by 7 votes at the other. A stunning result for a CPP commune.

The following photos are something of a technical look at the process of closing the polling station, readying to count, counting, recording the count and preparing it for transfer to the Commune Election Commission (CEC). 

Polling station during the day.

At 3PM the chaiman declared an end to voting, ordered the door closed, and shut the slot cover on the top of the ballot box.

 Taping formed to the top of the closed box.

The chairman completed and attached documents to the top of the box and and then puts a metal cap on the box.

Polling staff applies ziplocks to box.

Ballot box sealed. Party observers looking on. Note the green ID the observers wear. The polling staff where yellow IDs.(I saw party observers in every one of the more than two dozen stations polling stations I visited.)

The polling staff then rearranged the polling station into a counting station - moving tables, breaking down the equipment, securing the unused ballots and indelible ink, etc.

Two polling staff move the ballot box to the counting table and invite the observers to inspect the numbered ziplock seals.

Polling staff cut the numbered ziplock seals that had been applied just a few moments earlier at closing time. Observers look on.

Polling staff removes the final numbered ziplock seal that had been applied when the stationed opened in the morning.

The box top is removed and the ballots are dumped onto the counting table.

The ballot box set aside. The ballots sit unsorted on the counting table.

Unfolding and piling the ballots.

The ballots are unfolded and piled neatly in groups of 25. They are then counted and reconciled with the number of voters ticked off the registration and the number of leftover ballots.

The unused leftover ballots are rendered invalid by drive a spike through the bundle.

Counting. The chairman takes a ballot from the top of the pile, looks at it, reads the number aloud, and holds it up so that observers can see the ballot if they want. She then places the ballot in in the appropriate pile, sorted by party. Notice the observers behind and next to her. A couple calls were challenged by party observers, but were all resolved to everybody's agreement.

Counting. The process continues. Note the tallies being taking from the called numbers by two people. The guy in the blue is ticking off votes on an official form. The guy in the background is ticking off votes on the 'big board,' a hand drawn tally board that can be easily seen by all present in the counting station. Observers and staff look on very closely.

Counting. Showing the ballot. Note observers standing behind the chairman, watching the ballots as she called them

In the meantime, the staff disassemble and pack up the station equipment. This is a voter shield being packed up.

 Completing post counting paperwork.

The ballots

Still completing post counting paperwork.

Completed Form 1104 with count results, distributed to all observers present.

  Packing completed forms and materials into various envelopes.

 Packing envelopes, forms and voter materials including ballots into various envelopes and plastic bags for transfer to CEC.This part of the process (envelopes and bags) probably generated more staff discussion, restarts, minor debate and checking of the written procedures than any other single part of the process.

Consulting the manual again, trying to get all the various forms, ballots and other election materials into the correct envelope/bag.

At this polling station the ballots, documents and equipment were loaded onto motorcycles for transport to the Commune Election Commission (CEC). Two more more ballot laden motorcycles from the nearby polling station joined this one and they were all escorted by armed guards to the CEC a few kilometers away.

The final count on the big board.

Election Day, morning

Inked.

Election day in Cambodia, Prey Veng province, July 28, 2013

Here’s a quick dump of a few photos from polling stations I visited this morning (before 11AM.) I visited about 17 polling stations at 8 different locations in Prey Veng province, most in the countryside outside the city.

Some stray notes:

I noticed that there are polling station staff assigned to assist people locate their names on the posted registration lists. There is a lot of lingering at the registration lists as people search for their names.

Have seen a lot of ICE forms being used as ID, especially at polling stations in the countryside away from the city. Most, but not all, were young people. I spoke to 6 or 7 ICE form holders about it. All but one said that they have only a family book as ID but there is only one family book for the whole family, yet there are several people of voting age in their family. So rather than pass the family book around between everybody, they got the ICE forms to have individual IDs for voting.

As of 11AM more than half of the polling stations I have visited have had around 30% turnout. Most of these stations have been in the countryside and the polling staff speculates that the farmers are working in the fields in the morning and may come to vote in the afternoon.

I have seen multiple party observers at every polling station and non-party observers (COMFREL, Transparency International, unidentified non-party) at about 70% of the visited stations.

One observer told me that as soon as he voted he rushed straight home to try to wash off the ink using techniques he read about on Facebook yesterday. Displaying his still stained finger he said, “It didn’t work.”

Polling station staff sealing the ballot box before polling opens.

People searching for their names on posted registration lists outside the polling station.

Countryside polling station in school building. Late morning, very few voters.

Showing ID and recieving ballot.

Voting.

Getting inked.

Domestic observers.

This lady stopped me and insisted I take her photo, saying "I am old and I cannot do anything, but I can do this."

Election Eve: Polling Station

Voter instructions posted outside the polling station.

Today was a quiet day in Prey Veng. White day. The day after the end of the campaign and the day before election day. Some businesses in town were closed today and some others closed earlier than usual. The traffic was heavy on some of the main roads as people returned to the province and to the districts to vote tomorrow.

I stopped by 10 or 12 polling stations this afternoon. The polling station staff was at some stations, finishing last minute preparations and setting up the various voting equipment. At other, the work apparently complete, the polling staff had gone home, leaving the doors locked and the requisite guards outside the station. (Though I found one station completely unmanned, set up. staff gone, no guard.) At about half the stations I visited there were a few people lingering over the voter registration lists posted outside each station, checking for their name or the names of relatives. 

Voter checking registrations lists posted outside polling station for her name.

Registration lists.

Polling station at pagoda school building.

Polling station interior. Clerks on far side to check ID/name and give ballot. Voting shields in middle. Ballot box (still unassembled in cardboard storage box) and indelible ink on left. Chairman's desk at head of room.

Polling station interior.

Behind voting shield.

The infamous indelible ink.

Instructions posted outside polling station.

Going home for election day

People disembarking the Neak Loeng ferry on the Prey Veng side.

A friend, his wife Sophea and baby daughter were visiting me here in Prey Veng and had planned to stay a few more days, but the baby became mildly ill, so they decided to return to Phnom Penh today, the day before the National Elections. Their driver was supposed come from Phnom Penh this morning to pick them up and should have arrived by 11AM or so, but at noon called and said he was delayed by a huge traffic back up on the Neak Loeung ferry crossing.

National Route #1 is the main road from Phnom Penh to Prey Veng province. Where it meets the Mekong River at Neak Loeung the only way across is by ferry boat, which runs non-stop all day. But today isn’t just any day. It is the day before the elections. Today many of the people who live outside their home province travel back to vote where they are registered. Hence the back-up at the Neak Loeung crossing which can be a bottleneck when traffic exceeds the capacity of the ferries.

Their car had arrived at the crossing on the other side of the river at 10AM. Two hours later he was still hundreds of vehicles back in line and was told it could be hours more. Overhearing us talk of the problem the house owner Vuthy suggested that he could drive us to Neak Loeung, only 30-40 minutes away, where they could board the ferry on foot and meet their car on the other side. Good idea.

With the sky threatening imminent rain we quickly packed everybody into the Pajero and left just as a light shower began. On the road to Neak Loeung I noticed that traffic was heavy, but I was concerned less about that than the baby who was desperately tired and acting up because she wanted her cradle from the back of the truck. Bouncing to and fro in the moving vehicle I retrieved the cumbersome cradle and straddled it across the length of the seat. Without prompting the baby crawled in and went to sleep. We were left with it balanced on our laps and trying to keep the baby from being launched from her spring loaded bed by the bobbing of the truck, but at least her fussing had stopped and allowed me sit back and watch the passing scene.

That’s when I began to notice the sheer volume of remorques and tuk-tuks and taxis and truckloads of people, and more truckloads, and more, all heading north from Neak Loeung into the province. These vehicles were chock full, I mean, absolutely brimming with people.

There’s an old joke; ‘You know how many people can fit in a Cambodian taxi? …One more.’

But not this day.

The insides of these vehicles were packed sardine tight and external passengers hung off every available projection like so many Christmas tree ornaments. They dangled from mirrors, balanced on trailer hooks, squatted on front bumpers. Not that such ridership is unusual in Cambodia, but not in this quantity. We passed a large group on foot making their way along the shoulder, and later a bus, probably theirs, upside down on the side of the road. Dozens of packed vehicles passed, and dozens more. And then it turned into an unbroken stream of people-bloated remorques, trucks and taxis. Sophea mumbled a concerned “charan” repeatedly and there were occasional 'ooos' and awed 'hmmms' from all of us. As I watched these passing masses I noticed that many of them, perhaps even most, were young women. This is worth note.

Prey Veng is a very rural province. There is no tourism or large factories. The vast majority of the resident population is in the agricultural sector - the proverbial Cambodian countryside. This is the demographic with which the CPP traditionally does very well come election time.

Of Prey Veng’s 11 seats in the National Assembly, the CPP holds 7. But the opposition also does comparatively well here, holding 3 seats. The Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) holds the one non-CPP/non-opposition seat, but the NRP is now dissolved and not participating in the election, so that seat is up for grabs. Maybe more as well.

The opposition has won its Prey Veng seats over the last two elections in part by building on the demise of FUNCINPEC which used to hold significant sway here. But perhaps more importantly, the Prey Veng countryside is the source of day laborers in Phnom Penh and large numbers of garment workers employed in the factories around Takeo, Kandal and Phnom Penh. And the factory worker vote falls very strongly on the side of the opposition parties. Those thousands of young women streaming up the road from Neak Loeung and into the countryside are likely garments workers heading home to vote, bringing their opposition leanings with them, and perhaps influencing their families who are the beneficiaries of largess sent home by their daughters in the factories. Their impact may be felt beyond the taking of that one NRP seat.

I looked down at the ill baby bouncing along in her cradle and then up at the passing flow of humanity, and I was concerned. If something goes wrong, if you need help, if you need some sort of special consideration, this is not the place to be. The roads are clogged, the authorities overwhelmed and ordinary people have there own immediate concerns. I anticipated the worst at Neak Loeung, and I worried.

My worries proved unfounded. It was traffic on the other side of the river that was backed up. On our side of the river there was a constant outpouring of people and vehicles from the ferries, but it was smooth, steady procession as people flowed straight onto the main road toward the eastern districts, or turned north at the Vietnam Monument onto the road to Prey Veng City and the northern districts.

Vuthy parked on a side road and escorted the family onto the ferry, leaving me to guard the truck. An apparently mentally disturbed street person moved into the shadow next to the truck and sat eating garbage. Disturbed, I wandered off to the ferry docks and took the above video.

Before Vuthy returned my friend called from the other side to tell me that they had gotten safely to their car and were relaxing with a cold drink before hitting the road for Phnom Penh. Shortly thereafter Vuthy emerged from the crowd and climbed into the truck. Mission accomplished. We lingered momentarily, watching the street person consume what appeared to be a light bulb, but with sunset quickly approaching we had to get on our way. Vuthy gently guided the truck through the crowds and we joined the slowly diminishing stream of north-bound vehicles heading for Prey Veng City, the deep countryside and Election Day.

A road in Prey Veng

CPP logo

This month, five years ago I drove out this same road in Prey Veng province on my way to Mesang district. This particular stretch was a red mud nightmare, deeply rutted and almost impassible in parts. Today I was surprised to find it paved and smooth, 40+ kilometers of it. Impressive...as was the massive CPP campaign parade that passed us on this road deep in the countryside. The new road must be of great benefit to the villages it connects together and to the main road. I was somewhat less surprised to see CPP campaign signs with pictures of Hun Sen juxtaposed with the new road. So was the road built by the state or the party? Hard to tell. This is how the CPP provides for its rural constituency - roads and sewers and other services ordinarily provided by the state, but apparently raining down from the party like gifts dropped from heaven by a devata. And the countryside has traditionally given its votes back to the party in appreciation for such patronage. Democracy feudal-style. Still, I wondered if the fear generated by land grabbing, and the larger youth and the factory worker vote, and the continued lack of development in health, education and poverty reduction, and the seeming generalized desire for change might offset the new road this election. Hard to tell.