(i) Introduction
At the beginning of 2007, the next Commune Council Elections will be held for which the preparations will start within the course of this year. The third National Assembly Election, which took place on 27 July 2003, drew praise from both national and international monitoring organizations for the improved organization and implementation of the electoral process in Cambodia. Yet, there were major criticisms raised as to the neutrality of the election institutions due to violence and lack of access by the media.
This statement will highlight implemented results, and raise some more priority issues that demand immediate reforms before 2007 Commune Council Elections. This statement will also raise some priorities including village chief selection and encouragement of gender equity in political representation. The following Priorities and Recommendations represent the views gained from discussions amongst election monitoring organizations (EMO) and other Human Rights and democracy NGOs.
(ii) Key Issues
Restructure the NEC with clear procedure for recruitment and selection written into the Constitution
Although the National Election Commission (NEC) was restructured prior to the 2003 election, from 11 to 5 persons, it was noted that problems arose in relation to the procedure for selection, including the failure to follow open guidelines. Thus the selection of candidates for the NEC was made by the Ministry of Interior, which is under the control of the government and regarded as being led by the ruling party. Three of these candidates are selected by the Ministry of Interior’s CPP-appointed Co-Minister and the other two are selected by the Ministry of Interior’s FUNCINPEC-appointed Co-Minister before being submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval and the National Assembly for the final vote of approval.
If we examine the NEC’s composition and its members at all levels, it would appear that most are from the ruling party with a small number from FUNCINPEC. According to a study carried out by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL), in the Provincial Election Commissions (PEC) 70 percent of officials were affiliated with the CPP, 20 percent with FUNCINPEC and the other 10 percent from the public. Several parties were unhappy at this balance and raised the issue of whether the NEC and its subordinate bodies were in fact neutral. A lack of trust in the bodies that organize the election and enforce the election law ultimately undermines the overall process and final result.
The electoral system should be revised so as to encourage independent candidates:
The Cambodian electoral process remains based upon a system of proportional representation only among political parties. There are concerns that the current system a) does little to promote the rights of local citizen and independent group who do not want to engage with any political party to run in commune council elections, and b) encourages party loyalty over public service.
At the same time the system gives political leaders power to list representative candidates of commune/sangkat council. Elected members of commune/sangkat council have been threatened with expulsion from their positions, if they did not work towards the parties’ interests. The stranglehold of the large parties over the political process combines with the current system to prevent independent candidate from running for election.
Women should be encouraged to participate in politics
A quota should be established ensuring that women make up at least 30 percent of those on political party/RGC positions. In the 2002 and 2003 about 16 and 25 percent (respectively) of registered candidates for Commune Council and National Legislature elections were women. However, the number of female candidates actually elected was low: only 920 women equaling 8.2 percent of the 11,261 Commune Council members were elected. Amongst those women, only 34, or 3.7 percent, are chief of the 1,621 communes. This is because the political parties did not have the real will to encourage and provide the opportunity for women to be elected [and put female candidates in a low position on their party lists].
Strengthening the competence and power of an independent tribunal to deal with election law violations
According to the Election Law, the NEC has two important roles in managing elections and dealing with electoral conflicts. The NEC and its commissions play multiple judicial roles in election related rulings in administrative and civil proceedings, which is in contradiction with the Cambodian Constitution 1993 article 30 “Judicial power shall not be granted to the legislative or executive branches.” Despite playing judicial role, the NEC once again in the 2003 election, failed to effectively enforced the complaints procedure, especially in dealing with serious cases such as vote buying and intimidation. A large number of cases, in particular at the CEC level were dealt with through procedures of conciliation rather than a hearing. This conciliation procedure did not deter electoral violations; rather it seemed to encourage perpetrators to continue to act and increased the culture of impunity.
Access to Media
Media access is largely controlled by the ruling party. During the 2002 Commune Council Election, the RGC and in particular the NEC, discouraged radio and TV broadcasting on roundtable and campaign programs. Furthermore, the NEC did not clearly explain whether campaign programs on roundtable discussion were allowed on electronic broadcasting at the national or local level. However, compared to previous elections, it can be concluded that there was progress made on campaign broadcasting in the 2003 election. This has been a result of activities undertaken by national and international civil society in establishing programs such as voter education, political debates, and equitable political news broadcasts.
Strengthening non partisan Election Monitoring Organizations (EMO):
Based on previous election monitoring experience, we are concerned by the acts of RGC/ruling party that try to create a mechanism of actively using their influence to affect the neutrality and work of NGOs’ monitoring the election. For instance, in the 1998 National Election, the RGC/ruling party supported one candidate as the NGO representative on the NEC, though there was displeasure expressed by civil society. Since 2002, the year of the Commune/Sangkat Council Election, the RGC/ruling party tried to establish an NGO Coordination Committee on Monitoring Elections aimed at controlling EMOs, which may affect the independence of EMOs as a result. During the 2003 National Election, the ruling political parties supported a particular group of NGOs consisting of about 76 organizations. They are non-government organizations, but their actions absolutely support all acts of the ruling party. These factors caused public confusion regarding the neutrality of EMOs.
Village Chiefs selection
In fact, “Village” (Phum) is not included in territorial administration prescribed by the Constitution, but article 30 of the Commune Council Administration Law states that " for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of Commune/Sangkat administration, each Commune/Sangkat Council has to recruit a village chief under supervision of Commune/Sangkat....The Minister of Interior has to issue an instruction on the process and procedures in recruiting the village chief, replacing the village chief and his/her assistant."
Article 23 of Sub-decree 22 ANKR. BK states that the "village chief represents all villagers in the village....".
The RGC promised to recruit village chiefs, deputy chiefs and members as soon as possible in 2005 in accordance with decentralization policy implemented at commune level. According to the result of a survey of the Center for Advanced Studies conducted by Western Watts, Inc. and Ayres, McHenry & Associates, Inc., (sponsored by IRI) from 5 January to 10 February 2004, 90% of people support the election of village chiefs.
However, overall, one can see that the ruling party has no will to support the election of village chiefs and even attempts to appoint village chiefs and deputy chiefs based on agreed quota among political parties in power. There are concerns that if village chiefs are appointed by political parties, this would lead to obstacles to local development, including political discrimination, a loss of solidarity and social unity, decreased effectiveness of administration/management, lack of transparency in electing its representatives in the village and reduced participation rights and self-determination of the people, which is assured by the Constitution.
(iii) Recommendations
Structure of the National Election Committee
· Restructure the NEC with clear procedures for recruitment and selection written into the Constitution.
· Amend Chapter 3 of the National Assembly Election Law and Chapter 2 of Commune Council Election Law in relation to the NEC. In particular:
o Recheck the structure of the NEC, keeping a five-person membership but making sure that they are not political representatives, or held positions in the RGC or key national institutions within 3 years of being appointed to the NEC.
o Members should be independent, neutral, non-politically affiliated, competent and with a record of ethical behavior.
o Members should hold a higher education advanced degree, and/or have been in a post such as a judge for an extended period, and/or be of good reputation. Female candidates should be encouraged.
· In terms of the nomination procedure - a recruitment commission should be made up of representatives of political parties, such as members of the National Assembly, non-government organizations and the Cambodian Bar Association.
· The names of candidates should be released to the public in order to encourage their feedback before being submitted to the National Assembly for confirmation.
· Members of the electoral body should have the same immunity or privileges that National Assembly members have.
· To strengthen the function and competence of NEC members, an independent body should be established. This body should have the right to punish the NEC members if they violate the election law.
The electoral system should be revised so as to encourage independent candidates:
· The Electoral System should operate on a mixed-voting system (individual and proportional systems combined) to provide the opportunity for independent individuals or groups to contest the election.
· Political party and non-political party candidates should be able to contest the election in all constituencies.
Encourage women to participate in politics
· Establish a quota of at least 30 percent of female candidates on all political party’s lists. This quota should also be stated in the electoral legal framework or the policy of each political party in order to provide women a more effective opportunity to take part in social and political affairs.
· Female candidate’s names should alternate with male candidate’s names starting from the top of the candidate list.
Strengthen the competence and power of an independent tribunal to deal with election law violations
· Increase the provision of information to and training of court officials, the police, and the general public on election complaints procedures.
· Establish bodies to conduct hearings independent of the NEC.
· Establish a Department of the NEC in charge of filing and proceeding election complaints.
· All appeals of election hearing rulings should be brought directly to the Constitutional Council. The Constitutional Council should not further investigations the issue, but rather rule on the evidence presented to them.
· The police at all levels should coordinate with polling staff of the sub-committee or department of investigation of the NEC.
Media Access
· In order to improve information and debate, and the media ‘s coverage of political platforms, guidelines and laws must be established for ensuring access to information for both state and private run media.
· State-owned media outlets should provide airtime free of charge to NGOs for voter education programs.
· The law on broadcasting media should be established for TV and Radio.
Village chief selection:
· The Ministry of Interior should prepare Directive on the procedure of conducting village chief elections, which are under the organization of Commune Councils. The elections should be simple, confidential, cost-effective and allow for the participation of local civil society.
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