Written by Meas Sokchea
Monday, 01 September 2008
Courtesy of Phnom Penh Post
Shift not related to National Assembly boycott, officials sayOPPOSITION party officials say a recent shake-up among top leaders is not due to divisions over their potential boycott of this month's National Assembly meeting to announce a new government.The Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party have announced they will boycott the meeting, scheduled for September 24, over allegations of election fraud by the ruling Cambodian People's Party in last month's polls.Nhek Vannara, deputy secretary general of the HRP, said the appointment of Yem Ponhearith in mid-August as the party's new secretary general was made because his background better conformed to the needs of the party.Former HRP secretary general Ou Chanrath will become vice chairman of the party's discipline committee."We made this change not because of any problems in the party," Nhek Vannara said. "It is also not related to any potential boycott of the National Assembly."The Norodom Ranariddh Party announced that spokesman Muth Chantha will be replaced by Deputy Secretary General Suth Dina.Suth Dina said he had no idea why the change was made and only recently heard about it from other party members."A letter announcing the change was sent to Prince Ranariddh last week, but I haven't seen a copy of it," Suth Dina said.Former spokesman Muth Chantha told the Post on Sunday he did not know about the change either and could not speculate about the reason for it.Meanwhile, SRP member Eng Chhay Eang resigned his position as secretary general.Mu Sochua, SRP deputy secretary general, told the Post on Sunday that Eng Chhay Eang had previously informed the party of his decision but had not made it official until that day."I respect his decision because he made it for the benefit of the party," Mu Sochua said, though she could not elaborate on the reasons for his resignation.
3 comments:
Khmerization;
So at last all opposition parties decided to have a reshuffle for a better equipped line-up attack.
Hope the right people will be in the right position.
Capability, talent and credential are important and that the volunteer contribution shall not be the endavior reason for a person to stand for a constituency where there are more seats but fit for a person who can win the seat and more seats for the party
Frankly, I think it is too little too late. Reshuffle at this difficult time for them is a sign that they are in a bit of trouble. Even if they are not in trouble, to reshuffle at this time will not make any difference.
On your reason of putting the best candidate in the best seat won't work with the Cambodian electoral system. It is a proportional system whereby the voters vote for the parties and not for the candidates. Also the candidates don't have the constituency, or the electorate it is called in Australia in which they can campaign for. The constituency is the whole province. It is too big and voters won't have a clue of who their candidates are. So if they put the best candidates in there, the chances are that the voters won't know them. What I want to say here is that voters vote for the parties, not for the candidates. And one more thing, with the elections organising and running by the CPP, the chances that the SRP will win is one in a million. This is like asking a thief to catch a thief and he will never catch a thief because the thief is himself. To put in simple, the CPP cheated to win because it organises, supervises and it counts the votes. Of course it will make itself the winner- pure and simple.
Khmerization;
Even though it is proportional system but candidte for certain area will have some impact on voters' thought.
By the way, the reshuffle in SRP seemed indicating the internal rift and drift if not cracking.
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