The Mirror, Vol. 11, No. 520
“Some village chiefs, [mostly members] of the Cambodian People’s Party [CPP] left out the names of voters under their pictures, while cleaning the 2007 election list of voters, which made this process the most complicated ever.
“While the upcoming national election will be held in 2008, the public also reacted, saying that ‘the CPP village chiefs are causing trouble to any citizen who does not endorse their party. This is politically motivated.’
“At the same time, Sam Rainsy, the leader of the opposition party in Cambodia, explicitly stated, ‘Nowadays the village chiefs are normally not neutral, but inclined to serve the benefits of the ruling party.’
“Therefore Sam Rainsy clearly said that ‘the Sam Rainsy Party has prepared plans to hold village chief elections in each village; that would require the villagers in each village to vote and to select their village chiefs, not allowing the commune council representatives from all parties to cast the ballot [to appoint the village chiefs]. Instead, the Sam Rainsy Party wants all people living in each village throughout Cambodia to take part in voting for their village chiefs.’
“Sam Rainsy confirmed that, if this would be done, the neutrality of the village chiefs could be ensured, and they would serve the common benefits of the entire village, especially when preparing elections.
“The leader of the Sam Rainsy Party also noticed that ‘now we have seen the difficulties happening as a result of the actions of the village chiefs. Because those village chiefs solely seek the benefits of the ruling party; therefore they suggested deleting the names of those who do not advocate their party, but they keep the names even of those who already died.’
“Sam Rainsy explained to all classes of Cambodian people to consider that ‘the names of the deceased must be deleted, but should not be kept illegally by the village chiefs. In addition, I have observed many cases, such as the case of Ansay Rak commune, Sam Rong, Banteay Meanchey, reported by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, an independent organization, that there were 77 soldiers who used to be stationed there. Those soldiers are now no longer stationed there, they left many years ago. But the Ansay Rak village chief still keeps the names of those soldiers [on the voters’ list]. Such cases are regarded as “ghost names” since these people are no longer living in their former villages or communes, while the village chief inflated the number of ballots in favor of the CPP through the ghost names.’
“In this way the plans of the Sam Rainsy Party related to the partiality of village chiefs were clarified by Sam Rainsy, saying that ‘we have to replace them with new village chiefs, to avoid the bias of the current village chiefs.’
“Sam Rainsy, the leader of the opposition party, when being asked about a possible change of the country’s leader, stated that ‘if we want to change the Prime Minister and other leaders, please participate in casting your ballots in the upcoming national election on 27 July 2008. It is less than a year to go, and the Cambodian citizens have the right in their hands, in the hand of each eligible voter, to show their will through the ballots.’
“As for salary increments, Sam Rainsy said, ‘The salaries of teachers, civil servants, and Khmer workers are so low that they cannot support their livelihood. Moreover, we have seen much corruption, there are those who exploit the nation’s property and destroy the nation until they become tycoons, Oknhas, and get richer and richer, while those who are poor become poorer and poorer. If we are determined to get rid of such cases of corruption, to prepare the country again not to be corrupt, but to be just and prosperous, I would like to appeal to all Cambodian citizens to cast their ballots on 27 July 2008 for the sake of selecting a new leader and of re-arranging our country.’
“The number of names which were omitted from the voters’ registries has reached 1.4 million, which means that it is a considerably high number, therefore people in general are wondering how this figure has been so clearly made public.
“Sam Rainsy claimed that ‘the figures were revealed by the words of Tep Nitha, the general secretary of the National Election Committee, who was interviewed by a newspaper some time ago about the proposals from the village chiefs to the Commune Council about the omitted names of voters, having reached 1.4 million. If we allow the Commune Council – where the CPP has significantly more numbers than the other parties – to perform whatever they wish, 98% of the communes across Cambodia are bound to be under the proposals of the CPP village chiefs. Then the 1.4 million people will be deprived of their right to be eligible to vote.’
“On the other hand, Sam Rainsy pointed out that among those in the voters’ lists there were also some names of persons who had passed away, or those who had left their former areas of residence. A large number of those who were still alive and reside in the villages and are healthy, were, however, supposed to be dead, to have abandoned their home towns, or to be insane and handicapped. This is unfair, because all people have identical and equal rights before the law, particularly the right to cast their ballot to define their destiny and that of the country.
“The Sam Rainsy Party measures, in the process of clearing the 2007 voters’ registries, were explained by Sam Rainsy, as the structure of his party already reaches the village level: ‘Therefore, we urged our officers to monitor the process of how voters’ registries had omitted names at the villages. We had to assist people in all villages to protect their eligibility to vote.’
“The Sam Rainsy Party, furthermore, motivates the Commune Councils to publicly display the registries at the commune offices as well as at villages, in an attempt to avoid that there are inappropriate omission, and to give citizens the opportunity, whose names were mistakenly deleted, to protest.
“An analyst commented that a factor why the ruling party gave the green light to their village and commune chiefs, was the fear of the long-time ruling party to lose the 2008 vote to the Sam Rainsy Party. Thus, they have tried everything without embarrassment.” Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol. 14, #3232, 9.8.2007
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We apologize because we will not be able to present headlines today. This may, or may not, continue for about one more week, for reasons of very limited staffing. We can cover to select one article per day and have it translated during this time, but we cannot select about 15 headlines per day from all the different newspapers, as it is normal, during this week.
Norbert Klein
