A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 18 March 2015

Cambodia: Proposed Election Laws Violate Rights


Bills Could Allow Fraud, Manipulation of Elections

MARCH 16, 2015

“Laws like these limiting freedom of expression, association, and assembly will make it likely that any future Cambodian election is undemocratic. It’s hardly surprising that the CPP proposed these provisions, but the CNRP shares the blame for agreeing to criminalize and censor speech and limit the public’s right to hold campaign rallies.”

      Brad Adams, Asia director


(New York) – Cambodia’s draft election laws violate basic human rights and democratic norms and should be substantially revised before being presented to the National Assembly for a vote, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) proposed rights-violating provisions on the staging of elections and the National Election Committee (NEC), which were agreed to by the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). The National Assembly is scheduled to begin discussion of the bills on March 19, 2015. 

“Laws like these limiting freedom of expression, association, and assembly will make it likely that any future Cambodian election is undemocratic,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “It’s hardly surprising that the CPP proposed these provisions, but the CNRP shares the blame for agreeing to criminalize and censor speech and limit the public’s right to hold campaign rallies.”

The draft laws threaten human rights and will restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly during election campaigns by:

Criminalizing activists through vague legal provisions prohibiting “insults”;
Shortening the campaign and procession periods;
Allowing security force members to act in a partisan and intimidating manner;
Allowing the disqualification of parties on trivial, trumped-up, or misrepresented grounds, including by punishing entire parties for offenses by individual members;

Preventing parties from using political boycotts to protest election fraud and other irregularities;
Allowing political control of NEC operations through back-door administrative means; and
Using the pretext of having dual citizenship to exclude a particular person from committee membership.
The proposed laws were drafted without public consultation by the two parties rather than through transparent discussions with the participation of civil society and the general public.



Article 84 of the draft election law uses vague language to limit the role of nongovernmental organizations in election monitoring and other election-related activities by criminalizing undefined “insults,” including standard political speech. The article could also easily be interpreted to determine that Cambodian election monitoring groups violate the requirement of neutrality by criticizing the actions of the CPP, army, police, gendarmerie, courts, or other CPP-controlled institutions that act in a biased manner or commit election-related or other violations.

“Given the CPP’s long history of using the courts to target critics, this law could be used against organizations that conduct a poll that says the opposition is leading, criticize the CPP’s election activities in the media, or make public criticism of the government,” said Adams. “Article 84 needs to be removed or the new election law will be a tool for repression instead of democracy.”

The draft law also limits the number of public processions during the 21-day campaign period to four per political party. This requirement is an unreasonable limitation on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

“Campaign marches are one of the most basic elements of a democratic election,” Adams said. “If the two largest parties want to limit their marches, that’s their choice, but they shouldn’t be able to restrict the free speech rights of other parties and their members.”

The draft laws fail to establish a genuinely independent NEC capable of preventing election fraud and otherwise ensuring free and fair elections. The CPP has stated that it should be able to control the appointment process of NEC members through its majority in the standing committee of the National Assembly, that its appointee should be the chair of the NEC, and that the secretary-general of the NEC should remain a CPP appointee. The draft NEC law empowers the government to adopt regulations (sub-decrees) for the conduct of elections, thereby giving it the ability to go around NEC authority when necessary.

The CNRP has stated that it expects the proposed laws to neutralize the political control of the CPP over the electoral machinery so that future elections will be free and fair. It has claimed that the appointment of one independent NEC member will block the NEC from acting in a partisan manner in favor of the CPP. However, these laws provide no mechanism to ensure the appointment of an independent person to the NEC. The CNRP said that under a new NEC, voter rolls will no longer be susceptible to widespread fraud because of the use of biometrics, but this is not established in the law.

“Nothing in the draft laws will prevent the CPP from manipulating the electoral machinery in the next election any less than during the fundamentally flawed 2013 election,” Adams said. “The CNRP claims to be committed to internationally recognized human rights standards, yet it is backing laws that allow the ruling party to continue to disenfranchise large numbers of voters, allow fake votes, and distort election results.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

they blame cnrp because cnrp said it's very good election law but this law will trap cnrp .

Anonymous said...

THE WAY CNRP HAS BEEN dealing with CPP appears to go either very extreme way of betting the game.
If CNRP COMES ON THE TOP then its leadership is very smart, but if CNRP cries foul again in 2018, then the leadership of CNRP must be very dumbnest persons, I have ever seen.
And then making me wondering, whether the allegedly secret deal of $ 20 million makes CNRP looks zombie like character.


Anonymous said...

Begin of Drgunzet's comment.

Mr. Hun Sen is a master politicioians. Now he got both Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha working hard, defending his policy, taking half of the blames!

I predict in 2018, there will be a huge in fighting among the opposition. Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha will try to hang on to power, while some other opposition leaders will try to replace them.

If I were the opposition leader, after I fail, I would resign and let others to step up and compromise, then fight another round. I will not talk tough, then compromise. That's dishonor.

If I know I will have to compromise, then I won't talk tough.

Here is an example of talking tough. I said I will NEVER submit any comment under a Khmer moderation. And I will never compromise with the Khmer on what I just said.

-Drgunzet-

Anonymous said...


THE EVIL VIETNAM USED ITS PUPPET HUN SEN TO BREAK KHMER APART

Since adopting the culture of dialogue, the CNRP's leaders have been behaving like they are on drug, they cannot differentiate between wrong and right.

I said before, the CNRP had already paid the price to get a fair NEC when it allowed the one eye monster Hun Sen, who had clearly lost the election, won the election.
The loser became the winner, that was the price of getting a new and fair NEC.

Why does the CNRP keeps paying more to the CPP to get a fair NEC?

The CNRP should never concede anything to the CPP if it felt that such concession would favor the Yuon slave party CPP.

On the contrary, it seemed like the CNRP gave in to everything that the Yuon puppet Hun Sen's has asked for.

For instance: these 3 concessions will kill the CNRP.

1- Criminalizing activists through vague legal provisions
prohibiting “insults”. (you cannot call or touch the corrupted people and Khmer traitors).
2- Allowing security force members to act in a partisan and
intimidating manner. ( this is tantamount to giving the CPP to use force legally for any reason).
3- Allowing the disqualification of parties on trivial, trumped-up, or misrepresented grounds, including by punishing entire
parties for offenses by individual members.

Regarding the 3rd concession, how can the CNRP stops the CPP's spies, who were/are the CNRP's members, from instigating the CPP and give the CPP a pretext to destroy the CNRP?

For example:
Did the CNRP use violence during the past demonstration? Of course not.

Who threw the sticks around to let its spies or agents who were acting like the CNRP's demonstrators hit the other spies and then blamed the CNRP for using the violence?

That 3rd concession has made that CPP's trick to become law.

I have admired the CNRP's leaders for their sacrifice to serve Khmer people and Cambodia, but at this moment it seems like their sacrifice will hurt more than help Cambodia because the CNRP has let the CPP tied its hands and Khmer people's hands up already.


If the CNRP's leaders are so afraid to die, they should let the party choose a new brave leader to lead the party and the old leaders will become the party's advisers. This way the CNRP will never break apart. But when this new NEC becomes law, there will be no way that Khmer people can win again. And It would not matter with the new or old CNRP's leaders.

The time for the CNRP to stop this new NEC from becoming law is NOW. Just DO NOT CONVENE in the National Assembly to avoid voting for this crap new NEC. This is the only time that you have to save Cambodia. Put your life on the line when you wanted to save Cambodia

The CNRP's weakness - keep making concession after concession to the Khmer traitor Hun Sen and his master Vietnam - has led to Khmer disunity.

To solve this problem, the CNRP needs to firmly stand up for what is right. Please think this way, if you sacrifice your life and Cambodia can be saved from this evil Vietnam, you better do it.

One tactic that Vietnam has been using to break Khmer apart is to weaken the CNRP by using the devil Hun Sen to force the CNRP to do something that are detrimental to Khmer interest. And for some stupid reasons, the CNRP has just done what Ah Pret Hun Sen told it to.

Bun Thoeun