PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s political parties hit the streets yesterday in a final push for votes in Sunday’s general election, but a rights group said the campaign had been biased in favour of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party, widely expected to retain power.
Hun Sen has been premier for 28 years, bringing stability after years of war and the genocidal late-1970s regime of the Khmer Rouge but, his critics say, he has shown disdain for democracy through intimidation of opponents and electoral fraud.
In a statement yesterday, US-based Human Rights Watch listed a series of problems that had marred the campaign, which officially ends at midnight yesterday.
Among the problems it found were unequal access to media for the opposition, the manipulation of voters lists and campaigning by officers of the security forces for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). “The entire process is biased in favour of the ruling party and against the opposition. What should result in the will of the people has been organised to result in the will of the Cambodian People’s Party,” said Brad Adams, its Asia director.
He noted opposition leader Sam Rainsy had been allowed home from self-exile after a royal pardon removed the threat of a jail sentence, but the electoral authority had still ruled he could not run in the election or even vote.
“An election with the leader of the opposition banned on spurious grounds is almost the definition of an unfair and undemocratic process,” he said.
Sam Rainsy’s eponymous party merged with another last year to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). It is hoping to improve on the 29 seats the two parties held in the outgoing parliament. The CPP had 90 of the 123 seats. REUTERS
