Senate Election: One can still hear the barking dogs

The following is a statement issued by MP Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition, following the senate election.

January 22, 2006

SENATE ELECTION:
ONE CAN STILL HEAR THE BARKING DOGS

Cambodian senators were elected today for the first time. It was a non-universal election. The voters were some 11,000 commune councilors (the additional 123 voices from the National Assembly were negligible in this context). If one remembers when and how the current commune councilors were themselves elected, one will realize that the results of the January 22, 2006 senate elections do not reflect the opinion of the Cambodian people as of today. They actually reflect the results of the February 2, 2002 commune council elections, which were themselves strongly influenced by the “Night of the Barking Dogs”. Four years ago, in the night of February 1 to 2, the ruling Cambodian People Party illegally but methodically sent their agents to virtually every house in every village throughout the country to buy votes and, at the same time, intimidate villagers into voting for the former communist party. The result was an astonishing 61 percent of the popular votes in favor of the CPP, which succeeded in controlling about 8,000commune councilors out of the 11,000 (73 percent) and 1,598 communes out of 1,621(98 percent).

Thanks to the “Night of the Barking Dogs”, the 61 percent vote the CPP collected in 2002 was a big jump compared to the 41 percent vote it registered at a previous election in 1998. It is still a high figure compared to the 47 percent vote the CPP obtained at the last national election in 2003.

Therefore, the 2006 senate election results are misleading, with the CPP finally securing 45 senatorial seats out of 61 (74 percent), while the opposition Sam Rainsy Party got only 2 seats (3 percent) even though it collected 22 percent of the popular votes in 2003.

Elections alone do not make democracy. Communist countries also hold elections. To be meaningful, elections must be free and fair and reflect the will of the people at any given point in time, which is not the case of Cambodia. The most urgent task for Cambodian democrats and their friends is to push for an overhaul of the National Election Committee, which is currently made up exclusively of representatives from the CPP and its ally Funcinpec. We must urge the international donor community to stop endorsing dubious elections in Cambodia by financing them and/or sending “experts” and “observers”. In which democratic countries are elections organized exclusively by the ruling parties with total exclusion of the opposition from the electoral process?

Sam Rainsy
Member of Parliament
Opposition leader