Niem Chheng | Publication date 04 June 2018 | 08:41 ICT
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Representatives of 18 of the 19 opposition parties vying in July’s national elections discuss their party platforms during a political roundtable in Phnom Penh last week. Heng Chivoan
The Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit has released a video claiming that the July 29 national elections would be regarded as the “best” in Cambodia’s history.
The 14-minute documentary, titled Will the July general election be liberal, pluralistic, and democratic? draws on four points to reach its conclusion. The election process would be smooth and free, multiparty, open to observers and without violence, the video says.
Noting that there are 20 political parties vying in the elections despite the country only having eight million voters, the video says: “Cambodia is setting another good example for other countries in terms of pluralism, which is the basic principle of a democratic election.”
“In brief,” in continues, “the general election scheduled for July 29, could be considered one of the best elections in Cambodia’s history.
“Best election in the sense that this election will be held with the participation of so many political parties coupled with strict implementation of three main principles – being liberal, pluralistic, and democratic – principles that are the best foundation for an election.
“Last but not least, this coming election will be conducted in a peaceful and nonviolent manner and free from rhetorical quarrel,” the commentator says.
The video ends with the stand that democracy in Cambodia is maturing and that no one can destroy it. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) spokesman Sok Eysan, said he would not evaluate the election before it had actually taken place.
“We won’t say it now. But [the video producers] are the technical experts, they can say this. But for [the CPP], if we evaluate the election now, it’s like we are making a prediction. So, let’s see how the elections are conducted before we make a judgment,” he said.
Eng Chhay Eang, former deputy president of now-dissolved CNRP, said the coming election is a “sham and will not be accepted but condemned by international communities”.
Likewise, Mu Sochua, another former deputy of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), said the election could not be the best without the participation of her former party, which won 44 percent of the vote in 2013, and secured 55 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly.
“[The video] is a desperate attempt to find legitimacy that the next government won’t get, neither from the people nor the international community,” Sochua said on Sunday.
Political analyst Lao Mong Hay compared the government’s claim that the coming polls would be “the best election” in Cambodian history to a similar claim made in 1936 by supporters of Joseph Stalin, then chairman of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.
Mong Kay said that amid Stalin’s unprecedented purge of government critics and perceived enemies, the Communist Party drafted a constitution that the party hailed would guarantee rights of citizens and ensure a democratic process.
The reality was quite different, as the purges intensified, ending with the 1940 assassination of Leon Trotsky.
“It is likely those who have lauded the 2018 election as the best would likewise live to regret their words, if ever they have any conscience,” Mong Kay said.
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