The senate election: A win-win for everyone

Op-Ed by Khmerization
30th January, 2012

The 2012 senatorial election has produced an impressive result for both sides of the Cambodian political spectrum, with the opposition and the ruling party contented with the outcome while at the same time claiming victory in their own right.

Officials from both the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the CPP-affiliated media as well as foreign media have claimed that the ruling CPP had won a landslide victory. However, the result has shown that the victory is insignificant and is just symbolic.

The ruling CPP came into the election with 45 senatorial seats and, in this election, it claimed to have won 46 seats. If one applies the Cambodian election calculation methodology to allocate seats, the CPP had only scored 44.3 seats- a loss of one seat.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), on the other hand, ventured into this election with fears and trepidation because it had ventured into a terra incognita situation as a result of political intimidation, vote-buying and an expected cheating. However, it has come out with result better than expected, winning 11 seats out of the 57 seats up for grabs. Considering that it went into the election with only 2 senate seats, this is a significant victory for the SRP. However, the SRP had lost some individual votes, through vote-buying and political intimidation, in most of the electoral constituencies, but the votes it had obtained have translated into an impressive result- a win of 11-13 seats, a gain of 9 to 11 seats. The ruling CPP, on the other hand, while gaining some votes in nearly all of the electoral constituencies, have not made much inroad in term of winning seats.

The absence of its leader notwithstanding and considered as an underdog and due to political intimidation, vote-buying and threats from the ruling CPP, the SRP has come out in one of its sweetest victories ever. This victory- if one can call this electoral gain a victory at all- will firm its electoral chances and boost its political standing for its upcoming 2013 national election campaign.

The ruling CPP went into the election with 45 seats and despite employing its campaign of political intimidation, vote-buying, threats and the power of money, it has come out with a disappointing result - with only a dismal victory- short of everyone’s expectations- gaining only one seat or losing one to two seats, depending on which report one believed.

With the formula that has been used to apply in this election, the result is as expected because only the elected officials, members of parliament and elected councilors, can vote. With elected members poised to tow the political line, the result is a foregone conclusion. But the outcome could have been tilted toward the ruling Cambodian People’s Party because of its money power, vote-buying, political intimidation and threats. And despite spending a large fortune on bribing the SRP voters and buying votes, the CPP had not been able to kill the SRP politically as it intended to do so.

This senatorial election, if it has taught us anything at all, has sent us one message and that is never underestimated the underdog because, in this case, the underdog has turned the table.

Credits should go to all parties concerned for competing fair and square, especially credits are particularly due to the National Election Committee for organizing a relative peaceful election and for showing its political maturity and some sort of political independence from the ruling CPP, evident in its imposition of the penalty on a CPP councillor for alleged vote-buying and for its impartiality in counting the votes, avoiding vote-rigging and fraudulent counting that had happened in previous elections.