25 May 2016
Sam Rainsy
DERAILMENT OF THE ELECTION PROCESS IN CAMBODIA
Announcing
dates for voting days for the commune and national elections scheduled
for 2017 and 2018 respectively, is not enough to ensure that those
elections would be credible and acceptable for the Cambodian people and
the international community.
Worse,
in light of the current political repression, such an announcement
could be misleading in that it may divert attention from what the Hun
Sen government has been actively doing over the last twelve months in
order to manipulate those elections in a way to secure victory for the
ruling CPP in spite of its fast declining popularity.
Taking
full advantage of its control over the Judiciary, which it blatantly
uses as a tool for political repression, the government gets an
increasing number of its opponents and critics – including leaders and
members of the civil society – arrested and jailed on fallacious
charges.
Hun
Sen’s ruling party is not only restricting freedom of expression in an
unacceptable manner, it is also disrupting the political balance in the
composition of the National Election Committee by imprisoning one of its
top officials representing the civil society and preparing to prosecute
an opposition-appointed key NEC member. By doing so the government is
actually destroying the credibility of the newly formed NEC, thus
jeopardising the whole election process.
Finally,
the government and the ruling party must be reminded that, in any
parliamentary democracy, any national election would be meaningless
without the participation of the leader of the parliamentary opposition.
As the president of the only opposition party represented in Parliament
and because I am the most credible if not the only challenger to Prime
Minister Hun Sen, I have continuously been victim of political
harassment and judicial persecution. Since November 2015, another series
of politically motivated lawsuits leading to a jail sentence has forced
me into temporary exile for the third time in my political life.
The
current political repression – and with it the climate of fear and
intimidation – must first be put to an end before anybody can talk about
free and fair elections.
Sam Rainsy
CNRP President
2 comments:
Now CNRP really the election will be in trouble for CNRP because the CPP still have everything on his side and nothing I mean nothing CNRP can do about that. Now CNRP depend on the world for help but I think they all can do nothing because they just advice.
06:38
Yes, the signatories of the 1991 Peace Accords can make the lives and the livelihood of both Dictator & Traitor Hun Sen and Hanoi miserable.
The Khmer people and the CNRP have yet a long and costly journey ahead.
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