Partial list of Vietnamese nationals registered to vote in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The list is submitted by SRP to the NEC for review. The complete list can be found here.Friday, November 3, 2006
By Yun Samean
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
The SRP has demanded that the Prey Veng Provincial Election Committee remove 2,000 people from its voter registration lists because the party claims they are Vietnamese nationals.
SRP activists discovered the registered voters were Vietnamese because they cannot speak Khmer fluently, their names sound Vietnamese, and their skin is light in color, Pim Samnang, an aide to SRP leader Sam Rainsy, said Thursday.
"They are Vietnamese. They don't have [Cambodian] citizenship," he said. "We demand that the NEC erases their names from the voting lists."
Some of the 2,000 have valid Cambodian identity cards, Pim Samnang said, though he claimed such documents cannot be trusted as they may have been obtained fraudulently.
The SRP will only recognize them as Cambodians if a royal decree is issued granting them citizenship, he added.
Sam Rainsy said the party's request to remove the 2,000 from the voter list is not racist. He also called on SRP activists and the general public to complain about "foreigners who registered to vote."
"We must protect the law," he added.
Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said his organization did not find any instances of Vietnamese nationals registering to vote in the 2007 commune elections.
He added that it is difficult to distinguish between Vietnamese nationals living in Cambodia and ethnic Vietnamese Cambodians.
The latter, Koul Panha said, should not be discriminated against for having Vietnamese names, and should be allowed to vote if they have ID cards.
"We must respect their right to vote. Some of them have been living here a long time already," he said.
NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said Prey Veng’s Provincial Election Committee will hear the SRP’s complaint But he added that people are eligible to vote if they have official Cambodian identity cards.
Government spokesman and CPP Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the SRP may fear that ethnic Vietnamese people will vote for the CPP. The CPP has a long-standing relationship with the Vietnamese government, but Khieu Kanharith said some ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia prefer the SRP.
"Vietnamese vote for the Sam Rainsy Party," he said.
SRP activists discovered the registered voters were Vietnamese because they cannot speak Khmer fluently, their names sound Vietnamese, and their skin is light in color, Pim Samnang, an aide to SRP leader Sam Rainsy, said Thursday.
"They are Vietnamese. They don't have [Cambodian] citizenship," he said. "We demand that the NEC erases their names from the voting lists."
Some of the 2,000 have valid Cambodian identity cards, Pim Samnang said, though he claimed such documents cannot be trusted as they may have been obtained fraudulently.
The SRP will only recognize them as Cambodians if a royal decree is issued granting them citizenship, he added.
Sam Rainsy said the party's request to remove the 2,000 from the voter list is not racist. He also called on SRP activists and the general public to complain about "foreigners who registered to vote."
"We must protect the law," he added.
Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said his organization did not find any instances of Vietnamese nationals registering to vote in the 2007 commune elections.
He added that it is difficult to distinguish between Vietnamese nationals living in Cambodia and ethnic Vietnamese Cambodians.
The latter, Koul Panha said, should not be discriminated against for having Vietnamese names, and should be allowed to vote if they have ID cards.
"We must respect their right to vote. Some of them have been living here a long time already," he said.
NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said Prey Veng’s Provincial Election Committee will hear the SRP’s complaint But he added that people are eligible to vote if they have official Cambodian identity cards.
Government spokesman and CPP Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the SRP may fear that ethnic Vietnamese people will vote for the CPP. The CPP has a long-standing relationship with the Vietnamese government, but Khieu Kanharith said some ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia prefer the SRP.
"Vietnamese vote for the Sam Rainsy Party," he said.
2 comments:
There are so many definitions of what is Cambodian that some of them simply become racist.
SiS
Let me tell you Koul Panha, Yuon are encrouching in Cambodia. Even thdy have ID, we must not allow them to vote, they are not khmer and they don't have Cambodian citizenship. Those are Hanoi agences who robbed land and taking business from khmer. Why don't we sent those 2000 Yuons to the mass grave? This is hurting Cambodoan people who didn't have the right to vote and no ID.
Post a Comment