Give me a chance

by Soratha Chan

The members of CPP Party are waving the party flags for the final campaign day, 25^th July. Picture: Sovannara Chan

The 27th of July was the national Election Day in Cambodia. It was the fourth mandate election after the 1st UN-backed election in 1993. However, I could not join the election this year. Now, I am in Germany to work on my two-month internship with CARE. I am a Cambodian. I want to have the leader that can reduce poverty and cement democracy.

To me, voting is not just casting paper in a box in a few minutes. It is a long and long process. I have to observe many people and select the stronger leader. That person will be responsible for my family and others for the next five years, too. Sometime I feel headache because of trying to figure out the better one.

Cambodians abroad

Poverty has forced many of Cambodians out of the country searching for jobs in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia. In the article titled “Fisherman without Borders”, published by SE Globe magazine in June 2008, there were more than 1,000 labourers travelling to Malaysia in the first four months of 2008, and 182, 007 registered migrants in Thailand in 2005.

In June, I went to Poi Pet Commune, in Banteay Meanchey Province near the Cambodia-Thailand border. I walked from house to house and asked villagers about the upcoming election. Not different from me now, most of those residents went out of their home country and searched for jobs. Aunt Hourm, 51, is living with her old age mother. Her two younger sons had just gone to Thailand one day before I met her. “They might not be able to vote,” she said. I walked from one house to another house for an election report. I was wondering who is going to cast their vote this mandate.

How can people living abroad vote?

Having been in Bonn for one month, I have met some Khmer people (Cambodian). They are kind and nice to me. However, they are very interested to know about the polling day. “Will it be a peaceful vote?” asked the Cambodian lady, two week before Election Day, who has been away from her homeland for seven years. I think it would help her to know more about Cambodia right now if she can join the 27^th of July.

As far as I know, American, and British citizens can apply to be overseas voters. They can send mail or fax to the election office for casting the ballots. Why not Cambodian? Four national elections have passed, but the Khmer living abroad cannot join the election. Is there any way to give Cambodians abroad a chance to vote? I want to vote, too.

In the USA the citizens can get the absentee ballots from Local Election Official. Then, they vote and return the ballot to the Local Election Official. In the UK the citizens can have two options to vote from the overseas—post or proxy. By post, person can get a ballot seven days before the Election Day and sent it back promptly. By proxy, a person can nominate anyone else in UK as a proxy to vote for him/her.

My grandmother always advises my other siblings and me to choose the right chief of the country. “We, simple person, just want to live in peace. I don’t want my next generation to have the experience like me,” said my grandmother Sabeurn who has come across war and peace in Cambodia.

In the course of the 2008 national election, there were eleven parties. To get more voters and supporters, each party promises that if it wins the election, it will fight against inflation, corruption, and poverty. There were around eight million voters in the list of Nation Election Committee (NEC) for this mandate casting. NEC had distributed 80 percentage of the voter information notice, a card containing information about polling station and date, and voters’ personal data. In this mandate election, there were 15,000 polling stations available for eight hours of voting, conducted under the eyes of 13,000 domestic and international observers. Cambodia People Party is expected to capture at least 90 of the 123 seats in parliament.

Funcinpec Party supporters rally for the final campaign day, 25^th July. Picture: Sovannara Chan

Political Parties in Cambodia

In Cambodia, there are four main parties. Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is the prominent party in Cambodian politics. Besides this, there are the Sam Rainsy Party, the Norodom Ranariddh Party, and the United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC).

The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is the current ruling party of Cambodia. After the 2003 election, CPP had 73 seats of 123 in the National Assembly. This party has an outright majority in the National Assembly of Cambodia, but governs in coalition with the royal Funcinpec party. The present Prime Minister Hun Sen is the vice president of the party. Hun Sen has governed Cambodia since 1993

The Sam Rainsy Party was founded in 1995 as the Khmer Nation Party and given its current name in 1998. Sam Rainsy is the name of the party’s leader. This party is well known for its anti-Vietnamese sentiment and usage of critical word “Youn” towards Vietnamese in the press. Also, the party is known as the big opposite party against CPP.

Funcinpec Party is a royalist political party, a part of the current governing coalition. It was led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh. On October 18, 2006, the prince was removed by a party vote. Then, Keo Puth Rasmey, former Cambodia ambassador in Germany, became a leader of the party. Afterwards, the prince established another party called Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP).

In the 1993 election, Prince Norodom Ranariddh was the first prime minister, and Hun Sen was the second prime minister. However, in July 1997, the prince was ousted by Hun Sen who said to solve a problem of anarchy. Now, the Prince is staying in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and does the election campaign on the phone.

Tags: Angkor Wat, Asia, Cambodia, Journalism

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 07:55 and is filed under Projects Asia, Soratha Chan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.