POLITICS-CAMBODIA: Poll Takes Democracy a Few Steps Forward

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 5 2002 (IPS) - Despite some bumps along the way, Cambodia has taken a few impressive steps in its march toward democracy in the country’s just concluded local government elections.

While the governing Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is poised for victory in the Feb. 3 poll — the country’s first-ever attempt at democratically electing local governments or communes — the opposition also has something to cheer about.

Election returns thus far show that the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has garnered sufficient votes to secure a place in the 1,621 communes. This would bring to an end the absolute dominance by the CPP – led by Prime Minister Hun Sen – in the communes in Cambodia’s 22 provinces.

“This marks a dramatic change in grassroots politics in Cambodia and it will have an impact at the national level in the future,” says Sunai Phasuk, researcher at the Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), which monitored the weekend poll.

“No more will Cambodia have a one-party state at the grassroots level,” adds Sunai. “The CPP will have to give up the overwhelming power it enjoyed at the local level.”

Cambodian poll watcher Koul Panha feels that this shift will help usher in democratic features as checks and balances in governing the communes.

“The SRP’s presence will be able to improve the quality of governing the communes. It will be able to make CPP more accountable,” says Panha, executive director of the Phnom Penh-based Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL).

The Feb. 3 poll comes after Cambodia’s last two general elections in 1993 and 1998, both of which were part of its transition to democracy after decades of conflict and a large U.N. presence in the early nineties.

The CPP took control of the communes in 1979, following the ouster of the genocidal Khmer Rouge. The commune councils were the creation of the French colonists in 1908, helping to serve as administrative units to control the Cambodians and to raise taxes.

The Feb. 3 poll also brought another welcome development, given reports of pre-poll violence — the absence of any violence on election day, when more than 80 percent of Cambodia’s some six million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots.

“There was a positive atmosphere at polling stations across the country and no reports of violence or serious intimidation,” states ANFREL in a preliminary report on the Feb. 3 election issued Tuesday. “The atmosphere was sometimes festive and people were clearly very excited to have the opportunity to exercise their vote.”

ANFREL’s monitoring team, which visited all of Cambodia’s provinces, said of Cambodia’s voters: “They came early to vote and in large numbers. Frequently we found that by 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning most people had already cast their vote.”

COMFREL’s Panha added that the vote-counting process was so far being conducted without cause for suspicion. “The counting has been very smooth and without any irregularities,” he adds.

Women’s rights activists are hoping that they, too, will have reason to cheer once the final outcome of the poll is known, since this election spurred more than 12,000 women to run as candidates for the CPP, SRP and the royalist Funcinpec party.

This marked a new trend, since only four of 1,621 commune chiefs thus far are women.

Women made up 20 percent of the SRP’s candidates, 14 percent of Funcinpec’s and 13 percent of the CPP’s , says Lorraine Corner, head of the Asia-Pacific office of the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Bangkok.

“In terms of numbers we were impressed,” reveals Corner, adding that women candidates need to secure places in the newly elected commune councils to put “women’s issues on the local agenda, like violence against women”.

But women candidates were not spared pre-election violence. Three women were among the more than 15 candidates killed in poll-related violence, a majority of them from the opposition.

The run-up to the poll also resulted in close to 250 cases of intimidation, threats and violence documented by human rights groups and the poll monitors. According to one U.N. agency, there was sufficient evidence of local authorities threatening villagers to affect the outcome of the poll.

Consequently, the entire process has fallen short of being free and fair, and the ruling CPP finds itself in the dock. The party has also been blamed for legitimising political violence among cadres and supporters as a means of winning to ensure continued control of its grassroots power base.

Critics also found worrisome the failure of the country’s National Elections Commission (NEC) to remain neutral and to effectively defend the democratic process. “The NEC proved it was an incompetent body, failing to respond to the reports of violence,” says Panha.

Sunai was equally harsh, calling for the NEC to be reformed to ensure free and fair elections in the future. Currently, a majority of the NEC’s members are loyal to the ruling CPP.

The NEC, in fact, did little for its cause when it undermined the opposition’s access to the media during the countdown to the polls – by banning the television broadcasts of candidates’ debates.

The international community and donor countries have to take stock of these violations, says Sunai. “They must get the CPP to commit to an election free of violence and intimidation to help Cambodia achieve democracy,” he adds.