So are you Black, Gray or White on the CPP blacklist?

Cambodia's ruling party to record political bent of all voters

May 19, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's ruling party has set up local committees nationwide to work out the political preferences of each citizen ahead of national elections in 2013, national media reported Wednesday.

A document seen by the Cambodia Daily newspaper said people would be classified as white, gray or black, depending on their affinity to the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), with the party's strongest supporters categorized as white.

The object is to work out what motivates people who fall into the gray or black categories, then 'transform the black and gray to become white,' the document said.

It said another purpose is to prioritize help for ruling party supporters while CPP officials claimed information gathered on political affiliations would be used solely for internal purposes.

Observers and the opposition, however, expressed concern.

Koul Panha, the head of the independent election-monitoring body COMFREL, described the move as 'unprecedented.'

'It's something new this time - it's a big project,' he said, adding he was concerned the CPP plan might compel some people to take part in ruling party activities against their will.

The main opposition Sam Rainsy Party said it was concerned that information gathered could be used to target its supporters.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said the CPP leadership told party officials to collate data to determine the party's strength.

'We don't blacklist people,' Khieu Kanharith said.

A CPP deputy governor of Phnom Penh said people classed as 'black,' who had either left the party or did not support it should not be worried.

'When we highlight people as black, we don't regard them as enemies,' Pa Socheatvong said. 'The CPP and the opposition parties are not enemies.'

The CPP won more than two-thirds of parliamentary seats at the 2008 general election, which allows it to pass legislation without support from other parties.

Sam Rainsy: Voter Blacklists Unfairly Shift Burden of Proof

As of Aug 3, commune councils posted 653,986 names on "blacklists" in their offices. The councils officially propose that these names be deleted from the voter register. If a citizen suspects that his name has been wrongly blacklisted, he must now come to the council office, check if his name is on the deletion list, then file a complaint if his name is there. If he does not do so, his name will be erased from the register, and he will be ineligible to vote.

This process directly contradicts a basic principle of justice: that the burden of proof lies with the accuser, not the accused. Currently, if the authorities decree that your name should be deleted from the official register, you bear the burden of proof to show them that they are wrong. This process is unjust.

The burden of proof should not weigh on the shoulders of the innocent, busy, poor and often illiterate, but rather with those who allege that a name should be erased. The burden must be shifted by requiring the authorities to provide evidence for any name set for deletion—a death certificate, witnesses attesting that a person has permanently moved away from the commune, etc.

The Sam Rainsy Party will demand such proof for each name on the blacklist in every village in the country. If it is not provided, and the names are still deleted, then the legitimacy of the 2008 election will be called into question.

This problem of unjustified blacklisting would not be so widespread if the authorities had considered for deletion only the names of people who did not vote in April's commune election. I wrote a letter to the editor of The Cambodia Daily on Aug 6 highlighting two benefits of this approach: less effort required (investigating only 2.7 million names of non-voters rather than 7.8 million names of eligible voters) and reduced likelihood of blacklisting those who are eligible to vote. Since this proposal was not heeded, the authorities must now put in extra effort to minimize unjustified blacklisting, a problem of their own creation.

In their attempt to "clean" the voter register, the authorities must recognize unjustified blacklisting as a denial of democratic rights, unless they are engineering it as a means to improve their odds in the 2008 election by disenfranchising opponents.

Sam Rainsy,
SRP President