SRP: Gov't continues to disenfranchise non-CPP voters for the 2008 national election

June 7, 2007

GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO DISENFRANCHISE NON-CPP VOTERS
FOR THE 2008 NATIONAL ELECTION

With the National Assembly election just over a year away, the Sam Rainsy Party would like to raise two issues relative to the voter registration process, so that election organizers and funders can ensure that all citizens have access to the polls on July 27, 2008. The significant drop in voter-turnout in the April 1, 2007 local election is unacceptable, and is widely viewed to be due to administrative failures. In an era in which 537 votes in the state of Florida vaulted George Bush to the Presidency of the United States in 2000, forever altering history's course, an election in which over 20% of the electorate is denied the right to vote can hardly be considered legitimate. We must take upon ourselves the common goal of universal access to the ballot.

The procedural reason for the drop in voter turnout in 2007 was organized confusion in the establishment and the reading of voter list. This must be solved in 2008.

To this end, we call attention to the process of updating the voter list, beginning in September and lasting for 45 days. Commune chiefs are authorized to remove from voter's lists five types of names – people who have died, people who have moved out of the commune, people who never lived in the commune (ghost voters), double-registered names, and foreigners with no right to vote. We focus attention particularly on the second of these. Many people leave their home communes to seek employment elsewhere, be it in a neighboring commune, in Phnom Penh or another major city, or even in a neighboring country. These factory workers and migrant laborers are susceptible to having their names wrongly removed from the list. Our concern is not merely mistakes, but rather the targeted removal of names of people who are known not to be CPP supporters. Those who travel beyond their home commune may see other ways of doing things, ask more questions of the authorities, and be more critical and more likely to reserve their support for political leaders with different ideas. Although they have not permanently moved from the commune, a biased commune chief and other CPP-affiliated commune officials may use this as a pretext to deny them the right to vote.

Non-CPP supporters may readily be disenfranchised in another procedural move. In advance of the April 2007 election, CPP-affiliated village chiefs were instructed to deliver voter information notices to all residents. Often, they would skip the homes of non-CPP supporters, pretending that they could not find the house or that the person was not home. The notices for these residents were then returned to the commune office. In 2008, this fact could be used as evidence that the person no longer lives in the commune, and be cause to strike their name permanently from the voter list. If these names are erased, it will represent official disenfranchisement.

To solve these problems and to ensure universal enfranchisement, we demand that computerized national identification cards, which are produced with donors' assistance, be really delivered to all those who will be potential voters in 2008, including those who are now 17 year old. The Ministry of Interior and commune councilors from all political parties with the help of NGOs, should survey every village, taking note of who has a card and who does not. Those without cards should be provided with them as soon as possible. These cards should then serve as legitimate identification documentation on voting day. This will help to avoid the confusion and politicization of the issuing of 10/18 forms (intended for those who don't have national identification cards), which led to countless irregularities.

SRP Members of Parliament