Wednesday, 07 November 2012
Phnom Penh Post
By May Titthara
The National Election Committee
last night upheld the withdrawal of the names of opposition leader Sam
Rainsy and his wife from the voter registration list last month.
After
nearly four hours of deliberation, the election body said the deletion
had been done in accordance with the law and that the president of the
newly formed Cambodian National Rescue Party was correctly deemed
ineligible to vote.
“By election law, the convict shall be
deleted from the voter list,” said Im Sousedy, chair of the nine-member
committee. The removal of Rainsy’s wife Tioulong Saumura’s name was
appropriate as she had moved, he added.
Rainsy, who lives in
self-imposed exile in Paris, faces 12 years’ jail on forgery and
destruction of public property charges if he returns.
His
supporters have long contended the charges were politically motivated,
and he and his lawyer said yesterday the NEC’s decision had been
provoked far more by politics than law.
“The decision is not a surprise for me,” Rainsy said by phone, adding that he believed the result would not stand.
“I expect this decision will be reversed, because there can be no real election without the leader of the opposition,” he said.
“It is not a judicial problem; it’s a political issue, and a political issue requires a political solution.
“I think the political solution will be for the CPP to reinstate me as an MP and put my name on the voter list.”
A
number of other relatives had been removed from the voter registration
list because they had changed addresses, Boeng Raing commune chief
Chhoam Chheat said yesterday.
“I cannot remember the number of
Sam Rainsy family members whose names were deleted, but the reason is
that they moved,” he said.
Rainsy’s lawyer, Choung Choungy, said
he would probably appeal against the decision. “I will discuss with my
client about filing the complaint with the Constitutional Council,” he
said.
In an appeal filed last week, Rainsy urged the president of
the Supreme Court to rehear his case, related to the uprooting of a
Cambodian-Vietnamese border marker in 2009, for which he was convicted
of racial incitement and destruction of public property.
“The
planting of border posts was not correct,” Rainsy wrote in his appeal.
“They were planted in Khmer land, in a Khmer rice field.”
To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
1 comment:
Used border post as scapegoat to banned Rainsy is solely politcal's motivation because the border post marker was moved deep into khmer's farms land and Cpp Yuon slaves not dare to face Yuon their boss,so Rainsy acted in defending khmers interest got convicted unjustly by Yuons slaves Cpp instead and banned from participating in running for office.What's a traitors Cpp Hun sen's regime were!..Commited treason against his mothers land in Yiekcong's favor...Hun sen deserves to be hung for his acted of TREASON.against
Kmenhwatt
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