PM ridicules SRP defections

Prime Minister Hun Sen cuts a ribbon during the opening of a new building for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction yesterday in Phnom Penh.

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday mocked the recent defections and resignations of opposition Sam Rainsy Party members and called it proof it was impossible for the SRP to ever rule the Kingdom.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning & Construction building in Phnom Penh yesterday, the premier warned that any change of government would necessarily entail loss of citizens’ lives.

“Now wait to see Egypt, [you] suppose it is finished, people die more than before. Libya, [you] suppose it is finished…[It has changed] but not according to the goal,” Hun Sen said.

SRP accuses ruling CPP of election vote-buying

In the wake of what the opposition Sam Rainsy Party has called unprecedented gains in the senate election, the party has said that “virtually every SRP councillor” was approached by ruling Cambodian People’s Party officials attempting to buy their vote in the election, a party statement issued yesterday said.

The statement said that in Kandal province, where Prime Minister Hun Sen lives and votes, SRP councillors were offered US$5,000 a vote to swing their support to the CPP.

“Many forms of intimidation were also used to frighten the opposition into voting for the CPP,” the statement said, adding that “virtually every SRP councillor in all provinces was approached by CPP officials and offered between $500 and $5,000 to sell their votes to the ruling party”.

Thwarted vote buyer wants compensation

A ruling party member caught vote-buying on tape told a court hearing yesterday he should be compensated by the man he attempted to bribe because he recorded their conversation. 

On January 23, the Battambang Provincial Election Commission fined Cambodian People’s Party member Cheam Pe A $US1,230 for attempting to buy Sam Rainsy Party commune councillor Mok Ra’s vote in Senate elections the following Sunday. 

As a plaintiff, Cheam Pe A told Battambang Provincial Court yesterday that Mok Ra had broken the law by recording him offering the $700 bribe and asked for 10 million riel (US$2,475) in compensation. 

I’ve won already, says PM

Prime Minister Hun Sen casts his vote on Sunday in Phnom Penh for the national senate election. The Prime Minister is confident of the outcome.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday that at least one element of the 2013 National Assembly election is a foregone conclusion – he will still be in charge when it’s over.

Speaking only three days after his party won control of the Senate for the third time in a row, the premier said yesterday that there is no chance he will be displaced as prime minister, given the fact that he is the only candidate.

“Don’t worry; the opposition party has no possibility of breaking [the Cambodian People’s Party],” he told a crowd at a ground-breaking ceremony inaugurating national road 76 in Ratanakkiri. 

“At that time, who will be a Minister of Public Works? [We] don’t know yet, but the only candidate for prime minister is me.”

The premier also expressed his thanks to 797 members of Funcinpec, the Norodom Rannaridh Party and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, who voted for the CPP at Sunday’s Senate election, including 179 councilors from the SRP.

SRP says vote-buying fine not nearly enough

Meas Sokchea 

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

A Cambodian People’s Party member found guilty of attempted vote-buying in last Monday’s Senate election had been let off too lightly with a fine and should face legal action, an opposition Sam Rainsy Party councillor said yesterday.

At a hearing of the Battambang Provincial Election Commission last week, CPP member Cheam Pe A was fined US$1,230 after he was caught on tape offering SRP Tuol Ta Ek commune councillor Mok Ra $700 to cast his vote for the ruling party. 

SRP touts senate gains

Officials count votes for the national senate election yesterday at a polling station in a school in the capital’s Boeung Trabek commune.

The Sam Rainsy Party was celebrating unofficial senate election results yesterday, claiming to have increased its number of seats in the upper house from two to 11 despite the incumbent government winning an overwhelming majority of the preliminary ballot results. 

Early results showed the SRP had won 21.93 per cent of the vote. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party dominated as expected, with 77.81 per cent after initial polling by the National Election Committee ahead of official results to be announced on Saturday. 

Fifty-seven of the 61 seats in the Cambodian senate are being contested in the election. Two of the remaining four will be appointed by the legislative house of parliament, the National Assembly, and the others by King Norodom Sihamoni. 

In a vote derided by some analysts and observers as undemocratic because its participants are limited to commune-council members rather than the public, the SRP last night claimed a modicum of success. 

Alleged vote-rigger files suit over taping

Meas Sokchea 

Friday, 27 January 2012

AN opposition Sam Rainsy Party councillor who taped a ruling Cambodian People’s Party member attempting to buy his senate vote has been summoned to court to answer charges that he illegally recorded the man’s voice. 

On Monday, the SRP circulated a recording in which CPP member Cheam Pe A offered Mok Ra, Tuol Ta Ek commune councillor in Battambang town, US$700 to vote for his party’s candidate in senate elections on Sunday. 

The SRP subsequently filed a complaint with the Battambang Provincial Commission against Cheam Pe A, who has now filed a lawsuit against Mok Ra. 

Villagers wary of Pheapimex olive branch

May Titthara 

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

A deadly land dispute in Pursat province ended over the weekend with a victory for the villagers, but they said yesterday this might have more to do with the upcoming commune elections than a change of heart within the company owned by the wife of a senator.

The villagers from Tnort Chum commune in Krakor district said Pheapimex Group – which is owned by Choeng Sopheap, wife of Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khina – had agreed to return disputed land to them, following intervention by a group of CPP members from Phnom Penh on Saturday.

HRP gets Muslim boost

Members of Cambodia’s Cham Muslim community celebrate Ramadan in 2010 at a mosque in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district.

A coalition of Cambodian Muslim groups joined forces yesterday to pledge their allegiance to the minority opposition Human Rights Party, one of the groups’ leaders said.

Sith Ybrahim, president of the Khmer Islam Movement and former Funcinpec parliamentarian, said he had led representatives from 12 Muslim groups to join as party members of the Human Rights Party.

“I listened to every principle of every party, and the others have always spoken about democracy, but it is democracy for the individual not the public,” Sith Ybrahim said, adding that the HRP offered a unique and appealing political platform.

NEC claims final cut on SRP video

Deputy General Secretary of NEC, Sokolak Tipor.

Cambodia's main opposition party has slammed the National Election Committee for interfering in its election campaign and taking voting decisions away from the voters, party officials said yesterday.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party yesterday sent a letter to the NEC, accusing it of editing out important parts – including images of a woman being beaten by police during an eviction –  of two campaign videos that were aired by state-run National Television Kampuchea (TVK) on Tuesday.

“The Sam Rainsy Party is very shocked and finds it deeply regrettable that the NEC has cut out pictures and words from the SRP campaign video without a discussion beforehand,” SRP’s letter to the NEC said. 

“The NEC shows that it is biased and willing to cover up the cruelty of the ruling party.”

Campaign season: SRP seeks Funcinpec, NRP votes

Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Vong Sokheng 
The Phnom Penh Post 

In the fourth day of the Senate campaign, opposition Sam Rainsy Party yesterday called on council members from rival parties to help the SRP gain seats in the upcoming election.

In a statement issued by exiled leader Sam Rainsy, the SRP called on Funcinpec and the NRP to vote for SRP lawmakers in the January 29 election since those parties are fielding no candidates.

Opposition, NGOs say election airtime boost insufficient

 http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011120253106/National-news/opposition-ngos-say-election-airtime-boost-insufficient.html
 

Kim Yuthana with additional reporting by Vincent MacIsaac

Friday, 02 December 2011

The National Election Committee yesterday pledged that both political parties contesting elections for the Senate on January 29 will receive television and radio airtime on state-run broadcasters.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party will each get 60 minutes for a roundtable discussion on their respective platforms and 60-minute slots for direct videos, the NEC said. Both parties will also receive free airtime on state-run radio stations, it said.

NEC official Su Kulah Tipor said that each party could produce four TV and four radio programs. “These will be broadcast during the campaign period from January 7 to January 27 twice a day,” he said.

SRP lawmaker Kuoy Bunroeun said that the increase in airtime for each party still remained inadequate to encourage the development of democratic elections. “The ruling party has enough power to control the broadcasting system during the entire [Senate] mandate [of five years], but other parties have a little bit of time to broadcast during the election campaign,” he said.

“In democratic countries, broadcasting systems belong to everyone,” he said.

NEC general secretary Tep Nytha said political parties fielding candidates for the third Senate election have more airtime to discuss their policies than before but must still follow electoral rules, process and ethics.

Koul Panha, executive director of election monitoring NGO Comfrel, said political parties still lacked sufficient airtime to explain their policies to voters. He said the lack of equity in the broadcast media made it uncertain whether elections would be truly free or just.

Ek Tha, spokesman for the Council of Ministers and deputy director of its press department, disagreed, saying the opposition had its own newspapers and plenty of access to radio through stations funded by the US State Department, such as Radio Free Asia.

He suggested that the SRP’s problem was not a lack of airtime, but that its tactics and policies had failed to resonant with voters. “Because the CPP has been doing a great job, we continue to get great support, and our voice represents the voice of the people,” he said. “The [Senate] election will be free and fair, and the result will be supported by the people, the CPP and the opposition parties.”

Parties merge to eliminate poverty

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011113053054/National-news/parties-merge-to-eliminate-poverty.html

Meas Sokchea

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

The Khmer Anti-Poverty Party announced a three-party merger yesterday – and indicated an interest in future mergers with other political parties  –  at its national convention in Kandal province’s Takhmao town.

Speaking in front of an estimated 1,000 supporters, KAPP president Daran Kravanh, who lives in the US, said the KAPP would merge with the Society of Justice Party and the Democratic Society Party ahead of next year’s national elections.

He also indicated an interest in merging with the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party.

“We are merging to eliminate poverty,” he said.

“Today we have three parties coming together, tomorrow we might have the Sam Rainsy Party and Kem Sokha’s party [the Human Rights Party],” he said.

The candidate jokingly made reference to merging with the Cambodian People’s Party, if it ever wanted to be “released from Vietnam’s control”.

When contacted yesterday, senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said “we are not under Vietnamese control”.

Several of Daran Kravanh’s supporters  – many of them foreigners  –  also addressed the convention crowd, including his wife, American Bree Lafreniere Kravanh, who said her husband had fled to the US 27 years ago to escape a Vietnamese-controlled state.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that his party would be receptive to merger talks with the KAPP because it supported efforts to unite Cambodia’s democratic forces.