Sam Rainsy praised Hun Sen’s bravery in accepting to step down from power should he lose the election

Friday 07 March 2008
By Dararith Brevin
Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Phnom Penh – On 06 March 2008, Hun Sen declared publicly that he plans to transfer power to the election winner, if the CPP loses the election, in order to preserve political stability in Cambodia. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy considered Hun Sen’s message as being brave and he praised this action.

During a distribution of diplomas for students at the Royal University of Agriculture on 06 March, Hun Sen said that, because the fast approaching election, he can only participate in the Greater Mekong Sub-region meeting (GMS) only, following this meeting, he will remain in the country until a new government is formed, if the CPP loses the election, others (the new winner) will have to take over. Hun Sen added: “We must accept the results of the election: ‘If we win, we win, if we lose, we say we lose.’ If I lose, I will declare that I will accept the results of the election immediately, and I will ask the winner to form a new government immediately as stipulated by the Constitution. 60 days at the latest, the new government must be formed.” Hun Sen said that he will transfer power at the office of the Council of Ministers to the new power winner to preserve political stability.

Hun Sen added that any violence and threat make the Cambodian government and the Cambodian people lose face, this is tantamount to destroying the achievements of the government. Therefore, his message is to prevent violence from occurring, so that the country would not fall into the same situation encountered by Kenya, and so that the country would not fall in the same situation faced by Albania in the last few days.

Hun Sen criticized “some people” by saying that it very regrettable that some ask for the recognition of the election results while people were still voting.

Hun Sen considers the raising of such issue as laughable. He added that the problem does not occur yet, but the situation is judged in advance already.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said, in the afternoon of 06 March, that: “I praise Samdech Hun Sen who bravely declared that if the CPP loses the election, the CPP and Samdech Hun Sen will transfer power to the winning party.” He added that this shows that all political parties abide by true democracy, and nobody is clinging to power for life. It also shows that all the politicians are all politically mature as well. While the SRP is waiting to see the election results, Sam Rainsy also said that we all should put effort in order to obtain free, fair and transparent election. He warned that if the election is irregular, it will not be recognized by the International community.

Sam Rainsy added that for the election to take place in good order, the SRP demanded 3 conditions. The first SRP demand is: no removal of voter’s names from the voters’ lists, he said that the NEC erased close to 600,000 names from the voters’ lists, this action also took out the names of several eligible voters as well. Secondly, the SRP demanded that all Cambodian citizens who have identifications to have the right to vote, and cancel the use of the complicated form 1018 which is amenable to election cheating. Thirdly, the SRP demands that the NEC has a mean to separate those who receive the election complaints from those who organize the election. Sam Rainsy said that if all the three conditions above are not fulfilled, the election cannot be considered as regular.