Hun Sen: CPP will give two positions in each Parliamentary Committee to SRP

everyday.com
12th March, 2009
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Prime Minister Hun Sen (pictured) said on Wednesday that the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) will give two positions in each of the nine parliamentary committees to the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), but only if the SRP stops cursing the government.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony, Mr. Hun Sen said that this is just his opinion as he cannot guarantee that the majority of the MPs from the CPP will vote to support this proposal because the SRP has always cursed the government.

Mr. Kul Panha, chairman of the election monitoring body COMFREL, said that the government should not use the parliamentary positions as a pretext to silent the opposition parties. Speaking to the Cambodia Daily, Mr. Kul Panha said: "It is not a curse, it is a criticism. The role of the opposition is to criticise the government (for any wrongdoings)."

Civil society reactions to the court request to lift Sam Rainsy’s immunity

18 June 2008
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hedbo
Unofficial translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the original article in French

Several observers fear that this affair may hamper the good progress of the July general election, by creating an atmosphere detrimental to the election campaign.

Several members of the civil society, in charge of observing the progress of the upcoming election, do not hide their concerns about the request made by the prosecutor of the Phnom Penh municipal court to lift Sam Rainsy’s immunity.

“This was done to provoke a general panic among the voters and the activists before the election,” Kul Panha, Comfrel executive director, underscored while condemning the lawsuits brought up against politicians, especially when close to the election. “The government must be the only guarantor for the holding of free and equitable election,” Kul Panha said while adding that he will follow this case very closely.

Kul Panha’s opinion is also shared by Seng Theary, the director of the Center for Social Development (CSD). To her, the fact that a member of the government brings a lawsuit against his political opponent is nothing but a political plot. “Politics is mixed up with the law still. In actual democratic countries, people do not dare lift the immunity of a MP, much less that of an opposition MP,” Seng Theary said.

Puthea Hang, executive director of NICFEC, another organization in charge of controlling the election, said that he was “very worried about the political atmosphere.” All this seems to indicate that the ruling party does not want to see any opposition party leaders participating in the general election.

Nevertheless, Tep Nitha, secretary-general of the National Election Committee (NEC), sees in this affair nothing more than a “personal dispute” between Hor Namhong and Sam Rainsy. However, he conceded: “This more or less affects the progress of the election because the person involved is a candidate. But, this depends on the National Assembly and the justice system, both of which are independent from the NEC,” Tep Nitha explained.

CPP MP Ho Non: The CPP does not buy votes, it only fullfils promises to voters ... by giving out money to voters when the election approaches

Kul Panha: Some parties will buy votes

Monday, March 31, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

During a discussion held last Saturday, focusing on the upcoming July election campaign, Kul Panha, Comfrel Director, said that during the 30-day opened for the election campaign, there will be at least 50% of the parties that will take this opportunity to buy votes from the population. Kul Panha said that the vote buying is a dishonest action that brings in a bad culture because this tendency is not recognized and not supported by the International community. He added that, based on Comfrel’s investigations during the past commune election, there were more than 200 cases of vote buying which took place. He said that these are not individual cases, but they were rather conducted on a large scale basis when activists from major parties met each others to give money and equipments to the population. Mrs. Ho Non, a CPP MP, said that the issue raised by the civil society in biased because there were no clear proofs, She said that because people have needs, MPs must know about their constituents’ hardship, and that all it was amounted to promises made by MPs to their constituents only.