By Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post
Infrastructure, healthcare and schooling topped the list of needs rural voters said had been ignored by their elected officials, according to a watchdog report released yesterday.
Of nearly 6,000 villagers surveyed by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, only 2.2 per cent said their priority needs had been met by commune councils.
“Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, canals, schools... and health centres are the priority demands for villagers. People in crowded areas are rich, so they can work with authorities for development, but villagers are poor and have less influence on politicians because there are only a small number of villagers,” Comfrel executive director Koul Panha said.
“Because politicians only focus on dense areas for support, [we hope] this report will show that politicians should consider the needs of villagers.”
Romam Thang, Soeung commune chief in Ratanakkiri’s Bakeo district, said he was well aware his minority Tompoun electorate badly desired new infrastructure, but said a lack of money made meeting such demands impossible.
“People need schools, wells, and roads. We could manage to build a road for them two years ago. For wells, however, I don’t have the money for it, so we are requesting it. So what we can we will provide them,” he said.
Regarding land disputes – a perennial problem that has slowly become a key election issue – few of those interviewed in the report felt they had been adequately addressed.
Only four per cent said their commune council had solved their land disputes, while 85 per cent said they felt their elected officials had done “little or nothing”.
8 comments:
Wait, Hun Sen and his CPP will buy these villagers' votes.
Where do they get the money? From selling and leasing national lands and other national resources.
WHY HUN SEN STILL WIN THE ELECTION IF THAT THE CASE???
In Cambodia, Popular polls represent nothing. Neither those who disfranchised with CPP come to voting boot nor they vote for opposition.
It is just only to show they are not happy and that's it. Their unhappiness don't translate into political force for change. They don't see any other party showing enough encouragement. And they simply just ignore and trying to live and survive, don't expect anything from the government.
you cannot blame other people for your miserable conditions. You accepted CPP officials' gifts of a bottle of fish sauce and a few blankets to vote for CPP. Blame yourselves for being an IDIOT.
hamona hamoot
Answers: Vote buying, if one can't be bought intimidation or kill, NEC rules favored CPP, commune level cheating, some illegal Viets votes, unfaired media times, all military branches use government resources to help CPP ( AKA armed forces should stay neutral), sale national resources to foreigners for money votes buying during general election time ( short times gains but long term great lost to country such as 99 years lease of land to foreigners), fabricating evidences against opponents CPP saw as great threats, etc. etc. etc. etc should I go on and on.
Agreed, when Khmers wake up and begin to realize that their votes worth more than bottle of fish sauce and a bag of rice or a few worthless house products. Then they can make a wise decision of voting for the a true independent Khmer government instead of Hanoi's puppet. By that time I pray that Khmers will not become a minority in middle Cambodia.
Well, hopefully PM Hun will do the right thing this time for 'the righteous will live forever and the wicked will be terminated'. We khmers have learned alot form Kingta to Pol Pot regime and we know they have paid the price for what they have done in the end, e.g you can run but you can't hide...the truth will always be the truth', for life is too short, might as well do good.
As for the foreigners like Vn and Chinese, it is time to leave us alone and let us have our own sovereignty state just like every other nation has. It is time to do the right thing once and for all because it is right and just as 'god creats everyone equally', therefore what gives them the right to kill us anyway?...please enough is enough, we khmer need to live with price and dignity as well.
But if you want to support or help us, please do it with love, with kind hearted, with compassion, with honesty and also by not taking advantage of us and our downfall or else you will pay the price because it is what god hated most is to mock others who are weak e.g what goes around, comes around in the end' karma ( buddha) or 'if you are cruel, you are doing it to yourself' (Bible)
So, do the right once and for all.
Cheem Sreak Sbite How
I'm not agree with those lists such as: a bottle of fish sauce, a bag of rice, and household products for vote buying.
I think it's the illegal voters that made up for CPP victories in all fields. Why I said like this, because back in 1993 UN sponsor election, in Siem Reap province, my uncle was the guy who watch and interfere for those illegal voters, he almost got himself kill.
Imagine now that we don't have people like him to monitor those illegal voters, or NEC is not independence, the end results will be the same as five years ago.
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