Hun Sen Refused to Participate in the Debate

8th March 2008
By Pov Ponlok
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer to English by Khmerization

Mr. Hun Sen (pictured), a prime ministerial candidate for the Cambodian People’s Party who is also the current Prime Minister of Cambodia, has rejected on Saturday the 8th that he will not be participating in a face to face debate with other prime ministerial candidates in the upcoming 2008 election.
The prime minister’s rejection was made after Mr. Kem Sokha, president of the Human Right Party, wrote a letter dated 7th March requesting the chairman of the National Election Committee (NEC) to organise a debate forum among all the prime ministerial candidates during the upcoming parliamentary and prime ministerial election in July 2008.
The prime minister said: “This morning there is a newspaper article which reported that Mr. Kem Sokha, the president of the Human Right Party, had requested for all prime ministerial candidates to participate in a televised face to face debate. When I read the newspaper article I thought to myself that: in the United States there are always presidential debates because the elections in the United States are not elections to elect the party but they are presidential elections to elect the presidents. In France is the same. The elections are presidential elections to elect the presidents. In Cambodia the electoral system is a proportional system whereby the voters vote for the party and that winning party elects its prime minister. But he had requested for the debate forum among all the prime ministerial candidates. I wish to declare that I do not need to participate in such a debate but my programs, like the people have seen, are trying to solve the problems facing the people.”
In response to the prime minister’s rejection Mr. Kem Sokha said that the prime minister has no political will to improve and to push for a more democratic election process. He appealed to the prime minister to reconsider his position regarding his participation in the debate with other prime ministerial candidates.
Mr Kem Sokha said: “I respect his decision but it will show to the people whether he wants to improve the democratic process or not? I am of the opinion that if he wants the election to be transparent with equality among all political parties he must support this proposal.”
The prime minister stressed that he is not afraid of the face to face debates and he was proud to say that he used to participate in the face to face negotiations with the Tripartite Coalition Government which included the former king Sihanouk, Mr. Son Sann and Mr. Khieu Samphan in the efforts to bring peace to Cambodia in the early 1990s.
Mr Kem Sokha had also appealed to the National Election Committee to make its own decision regarding his party’s proposal independently without being influenced by the prime minister’s statement of rejection.” //END//