Factory workers in Phnom Penh may miss their opportunity to vote in the upcoming commune elections if authorities continue to demand bribes from residents to obtain voter registration certificates, officials said.
Workers face obstacles in receiving certificates proving they are residents of communes because local officials have demanded bribes for these cards, said Ou Bun Long, a Sam Rainsy Party senator.
“As I know it, [commune officials and police] are taking $20 to make a registration card,” Ou Bun Long said. “Why are they asking for these bribes and why do people need to pay it?”
In addition to the bribes, the workers may not be able to vote if factory owners refuse to give laborers the day off to vote, Ou Bun Long said. There are about 150,000 workers employed in the garment industry.
Since many factory workers in Phnom Penh are registered to vote in communes far away from the capital city, and the election law stipulates that people must vote in the commune where they are registered, many workers need at least a day to travel to and from their communes so they can vote.
The workers could then be fired from their jobs or lose wages if they travel to their native commune without getting permission from the factory owners, Ou Bun Long said.
To overcome these potential difficulties, Ou Bun Long suggested that the National Election Committee should create registration centers within the factories so workers could register easily. He also said the NEC should help workers get access to registration cards without paying a bribe.
Sek Sophal, executive Director for the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, said they are discussing these issues with the NEC and are trying to reach an agreement.
Officials from the NEC have said they have no right to order factories to allow workers to have time off so they can register and vote.
“We want to give them the ability to either go to their villages to register and vote or allow them to do this where they currently reside,” Sek Sophal said.
Sek Sophal added that it is important for the workers to vote in their village because they will know the candidates better than if they vote in a place with which they are not familiar.
Kassie Neou, deputy president of the NEC, said the role of the committee is to organize the election. The issue of giving workers a day off is the job of the Interior Ministry.
One political observer, however, said that these obstacles are a trick by the CPP because they know most workers support the Sam Rainsy Party.
“If [the workers] have no holiday to go to their villages and vote, they will not have the right to choose their leader,” the observer said.
