A Change of Guard

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Thursday 3 July 2008

State Resources Have Been Used By The Ruling Party For The Election Campaign

By Ouk Sav Boury
2nd July 2008
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Many election monitoring groups observed that state resources had been used by the ruling party for the election campaign.

President of ADHOC, Mr. Thun Saray, said that other than government officials using government-owned vehicles to campaign, there are other state-owned vehicles being used by the ruling party to harass the opposition activists more than in previous elections.

Mr Thun Saray said: “In the 2003 election we did not see many cases of the armed forces using state-owned vehicles to campaign for the election. But in this election, we have seen increased use of state-owned vehicles for the election campaign.”

Mr Kul Panha, president of the election monitoring group COMFREL, said that so far there are 35 cases of state-owned vehicles being used in 24 provinces for the election campaign. He said that in the provinces with more parliamentary seats, the use of state-owned vehicles to campaign are more prevalent. Mr Kul Panha said: “There were government officials as well as the armed forces, during working hours or even outside of working hours, have actively participated in the harassments of the opposition parties during the election campaign. And many state-owned vehicles had been used in the campaign but we observed that they had taken off the number plates, or in some cases the number plates had been covered. But the point is that the state-owned vehicles had been used for the election campaign. And we found 35 cases of state-owned vehicles being used for the election campaign.”

Reacting to these claims, Mr. Cheam Yeap, an official from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), said that there might be some cases of the state-owned vehicles being used for the election campaign. He said: “Some officials might forget about the election rules because nationally the CPP has nearly 5 million members. And among the 5 million members there are so many government officials as well and because there are so many of them, some officials might forget about the election rules. It is unavoidable.”

Mr Lu Laysreng, vice-president of the Funinpec Party, denied that his party used state-owned vehicle to campaign for the election. He said: “Not many Funcinpec officials have state-owned vehicles. In fact nobody has any state-owned vehicles. The vehicle that I used, in my capacity as Deputy Prime Minister, is my private vehicle. I served a Deputy Prime Minister for two terms, but I never received any government-funded vehicles. All the vehicles I used are my own private vehicles, they are not state-owned.”

Mr Eng Chhay Eang, Secretary General of the Sam Rainsy said that the vehicles with the “National Assembly” number plates are private vehicles. They are not provided by the state. He said: “The vehicles with the 'government' number plates attached are state-owned vehicles, but the vehicles with the 'National Assembly' number plates attached are private vehicles. All members of parliament from all political parties have the 'National Assembly' number plates attached to their cars, but they are private vehicles.”

Mr Tep Nytha, Secretary General of the National Election Committee (NEC), said that if the election monitoring groups have any evidence relating to the use of state-owned vehicles to campaign for the election, they can lodge a complaint with the Commune Election Committee (CEC) or with the Provincial Election Committee (PEC) so that they can help to resolve the matter.

At the same day that there are claims about election campaign irregularities, Mr. Thun Saray said that the atmosphere in the first week of the election campaign was better than the 2003 election campaign.//

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