Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Deleting Names From Voter List Followed Law-Backed Protocol

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Letter to the Editor
The Cambodia Daily


In "SRP Appeals Election Committee" (Monday, page 12), Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, was quoted as saying that the SRP has not shown proof to support its allegations that a significant number of foreign nationals have been illegally registered to vote. He also accused the SRP of playing on anti-Vietnamese sentiments.

I deplore Koul Panha's hasty assertion based on an abusive and unfair generalization.

The SRP is only upholding the law, which says that only Cambodian nationals, regardless of their ethnic origins, can take part in the polls.

It is legitimate to ensure that foreign nationals, regardless of their ethnic origins—be they Americans, French, Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese—are not on voter lists to favor any political party and distort the will of the Cambodian people.

I would like to elaborate on a model case, which reflects a democratic and peaceful approach to foreign nationals registered to vote.

On Nov 1, Heng Bophanavuthy, SRP first deputy chief of Chbar Ampeuv II commune in Phnom Penh's Meanchey district, lodged a complaint to delete the names of a number of illegitimate voters from the election register for his commune on the grounds that "those persons do not hold Cambodian citizenship, meaning they are foreigners who have not received Cambodian citizenship through a royal decree. [Keeping their names on voter lists] is contrary to the law on nationality and contrary to Article 50 of the law on the election of people's representatives. Besides, there are witnesses who can clearly testify that the concerned persons are foreigners."

On Nov 2, at a Chbar Ampeuv II commune council meeting chaired by CPP commune chief Sin Sakhon, the chief formally raised the issue of foreign nationals appearing on voter lists.

The minutes of the meeting state that Sin Sakhon said, "[some] names must be deleted from the lists because the concerned persons are foreigners."

After verifying that there were actually "51 persons with Vietnamese names, some of whom have not come to take their voter information notice, some have died and some have left the commune," the nine commune councilors present (five from the CPP, three from the SRP and one from Funcinpec) unanimously decided to delete the 51 names.

Tioulong Saumura,
SRP Member of Parliament,
Phnom Penh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sauma,
Your hubby Preah Thaung is not human but why you married him? Preah Thaung is a French mouton not jackass as you are. Both you and Preah Thaung are holding Fench voter cards for particular Paris precinct.Now you are both Khmer Nat Ass members at your private owned political mechanism party.

Remember don't cuss out crow since you are no less raven from same avian specy. Both Preah Thaung and you are originated from the dicatatorial Siahnoukist servitude clan.
Don't point it is not polite!