Will world stay silent as Cambodia returns to one-party rule on Sunday?
Cambodia’s constitution says that, of our 61 senators, two are to be nominated by the king, two to be chosen by the National Assembly and the remaining 57 must be selected by a college of commune councillors voted in by the public at local elections.
The problem with the new Senate to be formed on Sunday centres on the legal status of 5,007 unelected councillors affiliated to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) who make up almost half the commune college. These councillors were handed the seats of predecessors elected under the banner of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), after it was dissolved by court order in November. The dissolution has been widely decried as a political manoeuvre by Hun Sen’s CPP, which boasts the chief presiding judge among its members.
If Sunday’s election is to proceed according to the CPP-led government’s plan, the consequences will be as follows:
• The will of 3.05 million Cambodian citizens (representing 43.8 per cent of the electorate) who voted for the CNRP at the last local elections, will be totally ignored.
• With its 5,007 elected councillors stripped of their positions and their rights to elect senators, the CNRP will be deprived of up to 25 senate seats (out of the 57 up for grabs) to which it is entitled.
• By expediently dissolving the CNRP and “redistributing” to itself the 5,007 commune councillor positions originally won by the opposition CNRP through universal suffrage, the ruling CPP will secure 100 per cent of the 57 senate seats up for grabs, which will cement the return to the one-party system in place before the signing of the 1991 Paris Agreements.
The community of democratic nations must denounce and condemn this electoral farce, which is due to be followed quickly by
another: the general election on July 29.
This is an important test of the consistency and firmness of the international community. Those who condone Cambodia’s Senate election are likely to condone the July 29 general election, which will take place without the participation of the CNRP, which represents half the nation. But those countries who genuinely uphold democratic rules and principles will condemn both polls as undemocratic and the ensuing government as illegitimate. – The Phnom Penh Post/ANN
Sam Rainsy is president of the Cambodia National Rescue Movement and former president
of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was dissolved last November by a supreme court
ruling.
