By Mondol Keo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
SRP council from Prey Veng province sent a protest letter to 6 commune councils to ask them to remove 711 Vietnamese names from the voting list dated from 2005.
Pon Samnang, president of the SRP information department and president of the party working group in Kompong Leav and Peam Ro districts, said that after reviewing the 2005 voting lists from 6 communes, he noted 711 names of Vietnamese citizens: 68 from Kompong Leav district, 79 from Prek Ksay district, 96 from Neak Loeung district, 18 from Prek Ksay Kar district, 172 from Babaong district, and 278 from Peam Ro district.
He said that he insistently asked the 6 commune councils to remove the names of Vietnamese citizens from the list, if not, he will bring the matter to the National Election Committee (NEC) next.
Pon Samnang said: “I am calling, in my name as a SRP leader in the Prey Veng province, for the NEC to remove the voting rights from all Vietnamese citizens as indicated by SRP.”
Chao Non, Babaong commune chief, turned off his phone and refused to answer the question asked to him by RFA. Phal Sophat, the commune secretary, explained that the 2005 voting list was copied from the UNTAC era (1993) list, which was also copied to the 2003-2005 voting list. Therefore, these names had already been accepted by different political parties as well as from various observers.
Phal Sophat said: “The former list, it was not registered by me right now, it came from UNTAC era, the documents remain the same over the years. I don’t know anything about it.”
Tep Nytha, NEC secretary-general, explained that on this issue, when the NEC receives the complain, it will review it and deal with it according to the law: “We are reviewing according to the law on cases where the police does not issue family books recently, or it does not issue citizenship identification cards. We will base on all [these complaints] to prepare a number of documents to clean up the list.”
Hang Puthea, NICFEC NGO president, said that those who do not hold Cambodian citizenship must be removed from the voting list. He said that in the case of the 6 communes above, careful review and application of the law would be a good thing to do.
Pon Samnang, president of the SRP information department and president of the party working group in Kompong Leav and Peam Ro districts, said that after reviewing the 2005 voting lists from 6 communes, he noted 711 names of Vietnamese citizens: 68 from Kompong Leav district, 79 from Prek Ksay district, 96 from Neak Loeung district, 18 from Prek Ksay Kar district, 172 from Babaong district, and 278 from Peam Ro district.
He said that he insistently asked the 6 commune councils to remove the names of Vietnamese citizens from the list, if not, he will bring the matter to the National Election Committee (NEC) next.
Pon Samnang said: “I am calling, in my name as a SRP leader in the Prey Veng province, for the NEC to remove the voting rights from all Vietnamese citizens as indicated by SRP.”
Chao Non, Babaong commune chief, turned off his phone and refused to answer the question asked to him by RFA. Phal Sophat, the commune secretary, explained that the 2005 voting list was copied from the UNTAC era (1993) list, which was also copied to the 2003-2005 voting list. Therefore, these names had already been accepted by different political parties as well as from various observers.
Phal Sophat said: “The former list, it was not registered by me right now, it came from UNTAC era, the documents remain the same over the years. I don’t know anything about it.”
Tep Nytha, NEC secretary-general, explained that on this issue, when the NEC receives the complain, it will review it and deal with it according to the law: “We are reviewing according to the law on cases where the police does not issue family books recently, or it does not issue citizenship identification cards. We will base on all [these complaints] to prepare a number of documents to clean up the list.”
Hang Puthea, NICFEC NGO president, said that those who do not hold Cambodian citizenship must be removed from the voting list. He said that in the case of the 6 communes above, careful review and application of the law would be a good thing to do.
1 comment:
Who gives them right to vote anyway? They are just an illegal people immigrants. Lucky, we didn't not push them out or deport them like The Thai did to us.
Remember anyone? There were buses and buses taking us back to our boder and dumped hundreds,if no thousands of us down the mountain. Thrying to get back up would risk death by their machine guns.
Those were our story and we wouldn't wish it for anyone. Now staying away from the voting poles. This time and opportunity are ours to select our own ledear who we think, it's best for us and it's non of your business.
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