1st July 2013
Listen to the audio of the interview with Sam Rainsy here.
Cambodia's Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy has agreed to
an offer of talks from Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss claims of
voting irregularities.
After suffering the worst election result
in 15 years, the Prime Minister Hun Sen has extended an olive branch to
the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party, which has rejected the
ruling party's results.
He also says he'd welcome an investigation into alleged voting irregularities, which has been demanded by the opposition.
Hun
Sen's offer comes as as the opposition CNRP claimed that it had won
Sunday's general election with a narrow margin of 63 out of 123 seats.
On election night, the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) announced it had won 68 seats to the opposition's 55.
Hun Sen has called on the opposition leader
Sam Rainsy to compromise and to attend his proposed talks, which would
look at forming a new parliament.
"I wish to stress that it does
not matter which political party won the election - the important thing
is that our nation won," he said.
"I have told three of my senior
party members to negotiate with Sam Rainsy and I hope that the talks
process will go well, but if needs be I will talk to Sam Rainsy by
myself."
Sam Rainsy has told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific program he'll attend the talks, but maintains his party won the poll, not Hun Sen's.
"We accept the dialogue, but the objective is to establish and expose the truth - nothing less," he said.
"We
can move forward only once the truth is recognised by everybody, and
the truth is that the ruling party, after ruling Cambodia for 34 years,
has lost this election and there is a democratic change underway in
Cambodia."
Hun Sen also says he's open to the idea of a
multilateral inquiry into the election led by the country’s election
commission in order to show transparency and to come to a resolution
that everyone can accept.
Sam Rainsy says the Opposition wants the international community and the United Nations to oversee the inquiry.
"Now
that the ruling party accepts to join in this committee to investigate,
so we are ready, we'll abide by any conclusion by the investigation
committee," he said.
"We would expect the ruling party to make that same commitment."
3 comments:
The bilateral talks should be set up in two phases:
Phase I
Forming an entity comprised of national and international investigators to search for the facts and the thruth in the election results.
Phase II
Based on the finding(s) in Phase I, both the winner and the loser shall follow the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hun Sen and Mr. Sam Rainsy should plea to their respective supports to refrain from using violence or the threat thereof.
A Khmer Patriot
Oooops, should have been:
plea to their respective supporters.
Sorry !
AKP
9:43 pm, I agree with your steps here.
First, investigate the electoral fraud with the two parties plus the civil society, the UN and international observers. After the investigation, the two parties should respect the outcomes of the investigation
Second, after the investigation, then both parties should negotiate about power-sharing in the legislative assembly, ie the parliament, and also reform of the NEC.
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