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Fund for Reconciliation and Development

Press Release

International Volunteer Observers

Cambodia Election Field Report #3                                                                     July 25, 2003

 

Election Campaign Ends

 

Friday, July 25 was the last day of campaigning for Sunday’s election.  All parties had rallies throughout the country; in Phnom Penh, we witnessed those of the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP), the Royalist FUNCINPEC and the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the latter two addressed by their leaders, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy. 

 

Campaign rhetoric has heated up in recent days.  Both Ranariddh and Rainsy, predict victory and promise dramatic change, especially an end to corruption.  Ranariddh has made personal attacks on Prime Minister Hun Sen, leader of the CPP and claimed that if FUNCINPEC should not win the election, it would be because of fraud.  In this morning’s rally he turned on opposition leader Rainsy, claiming that the CPP’s objective was to fix things so Rainsy would get 30 seats and thus become the CPP’s “puppet”.  If the CPP should be defeated, he plays the “king” card (something Sihanouk would not be pleased with) saying that the monarch will come out and “protect us”.  Ranariddh’s own royal aunt, Princess Vacheara, running for FUNCINPEC in Phnom Penh, has publicly claimed he has not ended corruption in his own party.

 

Sam Rainsy staged a demagogic tour de force this afternoon, arriving an hour late at “Democracy Square” near the National Assembly, after a rousing warm-up by his wife, Tioulong Saumura.  He told a crowd of over 5,000 that he would be the next Prime Minister.  He vowed to “eliminate Communism” and claimed the election was now between the CPP (representing Vietnam) and the SRP, since FUNCINPEC has “vanished”. 

 

Whatever the outcome, it seems likely that there will be demonstrations, both by losers and winners, but these should be short term.  The issue will be how long it takes FUNCINPEC, still expected to finish second, to reach a coalition agreement with CPP.  Rainsy, who makes much of his US connections in speeches and brochures (featuring pictures of Sen. McConnell and other American political leaders) may try to involve the US in his post-election efforts to discredit the process.  It is a process, of course, to which he himself signed on several months ago.

 

Our discussions with Princess Norodom Rattana Devi (“Nana”), daughter of Ranarridh, and Son Chhay, a senior SRP MP now running in Phnom Penh, indicate quiet confidence, although they do complain about CPP intimidation and vote buying.  Nana suggested that foreign observers should guard ballot boxes overnight.  The atmosphere overall seems fairly relaxed. 

 

Tom Minteer’s CNN report of a climate of “fear and intimidation” is off the mark.  His main source for this was evidently Dr. Kek Galabru, head of the NGO Licadho and of the election coalition NICFEC, who detests Hun Sen.  COMFREL, the larger Cambodian monitoring coalition, however, has reported that FUNCINPEC had the best media access this past week. The long-term observers of the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), which criticized the results of the 1998 and 2002 elections, put out a pre-election report today that comes very close to praising the process so far. 

 

Late today we met the former Japanese Ambassador, Yukio Imagawa, a respected scholar of Cambodia, whose assessment is that the prolonged demonstrations and violence that marred the 1998 post-election period will not recur.  He believes the CPP will do about as well as last time, but SRP will take votes from FUNCINPEC.  The latter, if it wishes to share the spoils of victory, will have to succumb quickly to offers to form a new coalition, and will probably enjoy fewer Cabinet positions.

 

 

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development is coordinating a team of International Volunteer Observers (IVO) to assist the July 27 National Assembly elections in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The team, comprising 38 observers, is headed by Mr. D. Gordon Longmuir, former Ambassador of Canada to Cambodia, the author of this report

 

Previous reports and an article by FRD regional representative Andrew Wells-Dang providing background information on the election can be found at http://www.ffrd.org/indochina/cambodiaelection.htm