Voice of America
23/11/2006
Lawmakers from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) on Thursday propose constitutional amendments to allow overseas Cambodians to vote in Cambodian elections.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay argues that the 1993 Cambodian constitution guarantees all Cambodians the rights to vote no matter where they live but that until now, that rights has not been exercised yet.
The opposition party is proposing the creation of voting centers in foreign countries where Cambodians are living.
It also proposes that overseas Cambodians vote in the Cambodian embassies in foreign countries.
Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are living around the world including the U.S., Canada, France, Australia.
The majority of them are believed to have left Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.
Key lawmakers from the Cambodian People's Party could not be contacted for comments today.
FUNCINPEC lawmaker Moanh Saphan says he supports the idea if the ruling party approves it.
President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) also supports the SRP proposal.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay argues that the 1993 Cambodian constitution guarantees all Cambodians the rights to vote no matter where they live but that until now, that rights has not been exercised yet.
The opposition party is proposing the creation of voting centers in foreign countries where Cambodians are living.
It also proposes that overseas Cambodians vote in the Cambodian embassies in foreign countries.
Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are living around the world including the U.S., Canada, France, Australia.
The majority of them are believed to have left Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.
Key lawmakers from the Cambodian People's Party could not be contacted for comments today.
FUNCINPEC lawmaker Moanh Saphan says he supports the idea if the ruling party approves it.
President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) also supports the SRP proposal.
11 comments:
One of the most failure of this constitution is that before adopting that constitution, all Cambodian laws makers have ignored Cambodian right to have a referendum. All laws makers of 1993 have totally violated their own citizenship right. Therefore that constitution has secretly approved by a group of people. The consequense of this failure has allowed Hun sen to violate this constitution from time to time because it was not a propre legal document which approved by people in the whole Nation. To have an effective constitution, all people of Cambodia must be able to express their view through referendum. It is the same as the present Monarchy. To re-instate the second monarchy with full support of all Cambodian people, this re-instatement must have gone through this legal procedure. Without this legal procedure, all kind of National Institutions are not strong and effective.
Yet, a source close to Son Chhay claims Son Chhay does not believe that overseas support for SRP is as overwhelming as others think it is.
SiS
Before allowing overseas Cambodian people to vote, all parties must have a concensus on how this project can be worked out. Who will be the candidate? How many candidate per country? What is the smallest population? These kind of consulation must have done to have supported from all Cambodian.
Nice move SRP, very democratic way to exercise the individual rights. Thanks.
WI
Where is the Debate among candidates? If Cambodia is democraatic society, certaintly procedures are lacking.
Why bother voting when the outcomes secured by the CPP? With oil wells flowing from the seabed soon, it's not likely the CPP relinguish his seat if he lose theoretically. 1993?
What if they got a "Vietnamese sounding" name?
Try to be realistic, do not just say for the sake of saying. It is not enough to raise this proposal, but legal grounds should be established for oversea Cambodians to vote. How do you define oversea Cambodians? based on language? based on blood? or based on birthplace? or based on legal recognition? You have to proof why it is important for oversea Cambodians to vote. Then I think the MPs from other parties may consider.
It is ambitiously undoable.Most Cambodians are citizens of country where they live.Duality of citizenship may be an issue here.
The consequence may be larger than life for the second or later generations who may want to work for government of home residence country.
Raingsy seems desperate and overlook the importance of those who are in Cambodia. He is very unrealistic now since he adapted new cultural attitude.
At present there are two countries in the world which have allowed their overseas citizens to vote; Cook Island and Nuwe. They are both very small countries with very small population. Cook Island may be 50000 people at home and 50000 people in NZ. Nuwe has about 800 people at home and about 1500 in NZ. There is another country with population of about 200,000 people but has been divided into two countries into differents two administrations. One is independent but rellied heavily for NZ budget and another one is controled by american.
ANOTHER USELESS AND fRUITLESS EFFORT BY MR SAM SEE RAIN. IT WILL MAKE HUN SEN GOVERNMENT MORE DEMOCRATIC,WHILE IT IS NOT. THE OVERESEA VOTE WILL NOT OVERCOME THE CHEAT HUN SEN HAS BEEN DOING IN THE COUNTRY. BALLOT BOXES WILL BE CHANGED OVERNITE BY HIS AUTHORITY. HEY PUSSYCAT SAM RAINSY YOUR HEROIC EFFORT IS USELESS YOU HAVE TO USE DIFFERENT APPROACH. HUN SEN KNOWS HE'LL BEAT EVERYBODY ASS AND HE LAUGH HIS ASS OFF YOUR STUPIDITY.
I agree with 719AM. When is the referendum on constitutional monarchy take place? It was imposed on Khmer people by the foreign's powers for their own's gains.
The Vietnamese installed Hun Sen as their agent and moved Sihanouk up to the throne to fulfill his wishes so that they will continue controlling their agenda. As long as Khmer agreed, the western contries/UN would go along. Khmer'stability rather than civil war is their priority.
Had Khmer people have the option of choosing the type of country to live in, I doubt that constitutional monarchy was their first choice.
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