Print

Mail

wiki links

Cambodians vote in local elections, ruling party to lead

Voters in Cambodia cast their ballots yesterday in local elections which will likely see the country's ruling party further tighten its grip on power ahead of next year's national polls.

Some 12 political parties have fielded a total of 102,266 candidates for commune councils -- small administrative bodies that govern rural villages or city neighborhoods.

But Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is expected to take most of the country's more than 11,000 council seats that are being contested in a show of its dominance ahead of 2008 general elections.

"We consider these elections to be a trial run for the political parties going into the 2008 polls," said Tep Nitha, secretary general of the National Election Committee (NEC).

Casting his vote in his hometown of Takmao, Hun Sen, who is the CPP's deputy president, refused to comment on the possible outcome of the polls, saying he would respect rules forbidding party officers from talking about the elections.

Other voters, though, said they thought the elections -- only the second local poll to be held in Cambodia after decades of conflict -- would help give democracy a better foothold in the country.

The commune vote is expected to reveal a new political landscape in which the royalist Funcinpec party, which for years has been the CPP's coalition government partner, sees itself pushed to the fringes following months of infighting and the sacking of its president, Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party, historically Cambodia's political underdog, and Ranariddh's new self-named party now look likely to fill the political void left as a result of Funcinpec's decline.

"Security is good, but democracy is still limited," said civil servant Roith Sam, who was casting his ballot at a bustling polling station in the capital Phnom Penh.

"It's important for my nation to choose the right leaders -- I'm sure that the country will improve," he added.

Yesterday's elections followed those held in 2002 amid accusations of vote tampering, intimidation and political violence.

More than 100 people died in the run-up to the 2002 election in what rights groups said were politically-motivated murders.
This story has been viewed 1433 times.