Magic water 2

Does swearing to die over Buddha water if you do not vote for the CPP at next election, constitute a violation of the election laws? It turns out that the magic water isn't so much magic as a death threat backed by thugs.

A villager from O village, Svay Sor commune, who is one among the many who drank oath water said that he was forced by his group chief to drink oath water, and he was very scared about this issue. “They call us in to drink (the oath water), they are concerned that we are not faithful, that we do not want to vote for them. They pour water in a cup, they put in a small statue of Buddha (in the cup), they told us to drink. We are concerned, but we don’t know what to do, so I drank…”

The commune and village authorities recognized that they did indeed call the villagers to come in and drink the oath water because there is a disparity between the number of people receiving gifts and the number of votes the CPP received during the recent commune election.

Prang Chheun, the Svay Sor commune chief, said that he was the one who came up with this idea, and he did not receive any order from anybody else. He said that this stems from the fact that the CPP have 1,800 adherents in the commune, however, during the April commune election, the CPP received 700 votes less than the number of (alleged) party members.

The actions of CPP violate the secret ballot. How can a voter choose a candidate independently, if they have drunk the magic water in front of witnesses? There would be a constant fear of discovery and/or denunciation. The CPP know how many people pledged loyalty through this charade and how many voted for them. Intimidation will uncover who accepted CPP gifts and voted for another candidate. Intimidation works almost as well as corruption - but with the two in sync the results are impressive