Logo of the 12 parties participating in the commune election.Agence France-Presse
PHNOM PENH - Voters in Cambodia cast their ballots Sunday in local elections which will likely see the country's ruling party further tighten its grip on power ahead of next year's national polls.
Some 12 political parties have fielded a total of 102,266 candidates for commune councils -- small administrative bodies that govern rural villages or city neighbourhoods.
But Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is expected to take most of the country's more than 11,000 council seats that are being contested in a show of its dominance ahead of 2008 general elections.
"We consider these elections to be a trial run for the political parties goingin to the 2008 polls," said Tep Nitha, secretary general of the National Election Committee (NEC).
Sunday's elections are only the second ever held in Cambodia on the local level, following those held in 2002 amid accusations of vote tampering, intimidation and political violence.
More than 100 people died in the run-up to the 2002 election in what opposition parties and rights groups said were politically-motivated murders.
Although this year's campaign has seen little of the violence that marred the previous poll, there have been complaints of intimidation and a few reported political killings.
"The situation is a little better than previous elections, but violence still happened," said Koul Panha of the election watchdog Comfrel. His group reported more than 150 incidents of intimidation during the campaign period.
Nearly 14,000 foreign and Cambodian election monitors were to be posted around the country on Sunday, Tep Nitha said.
Prior to the 2002 elections, commune officials were appointed by the government and had remained largely unchanged since the early 1980s.
Some 12 political parties have fielded a total of 102,266 candidates for commune councils -- small administrative bodies that govern rural villages or city neighbourhoods.
But Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is expected to take most of the country's more than 11,000 council seats that are being contested in a show of its dominance ahead of 2008 general elections.
"We consider these elections to be a trial run for the political parties goingin to the 2008 polls," said Tep Nitha, secretary general of the National Election Committee (NEC).
Sunday's elections are only the second ever held in Cambodia on the local level, following those held in 2002 amid accusations of vote tampering, intimidation and political violence.
More than 100 people died in the run-up to the 2002 election in what opposition parties and rights groups said were politically-motivated murders.
Although this year's campaign has seen little of the violence that marred the previous poll, there have been complaints of intimidation and a few reported political killings.
"The situation is a little better than previous elections, but violence still happened," said Koul Panha of the election watchdog Comfrel. His group reported more than 150 incidents of intimidation during the campaign period.
Nearly 14,000 foreign and Cambodian election monitors were to be posted around the country on Sunday, Tep Nitha said.
Prior to the 2002 elections, commune officials were appointed by the government and had remained largely unchanged since the early 1980s.
No comments:
Post a Comment