Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday assumed a neutral stance in the debate over whether monks should vote in July’s general elections.
“I am open,” the premier said at a conference on election security. “If monks want to vote or not, this is the monks’ right. I will not oppose [Tep Vong’s] prohibition, and I will not oppose the Constitution about each citizen’s rights,” Hun Sen said.
Meanwhile Chea Vannath, president of the Center for Social Development, suggested the monastic community hold a referendum on the issue.
“If a lot of monks want to vote, then we should allow monks to vote. And if a lot of monks don’t want to vote, we should change our Constitution so that every citizen can vote except monks,” Chea Vannath said.
National Election Committee Secretary-General Tep Nitha said Wednesday the rules set by the NEC regarding voter eligibility stand firm.
“The NEC doesn’t plan to ask any top monks to allow monks to vote,” he said. “We implement only the law.”
The NEC has not recorded how many monks have been registered, Tep Nitha said, but the number of citizens registered to vote stands at 91,864.
Tep Nitha conceded that there have been technical hitches in the registration process since stations opened last Thursday, but said that is to be expected in the first week of registration.
“Later, the process will be good,” he said.
Voters from eight communes in Prampi Makara district were unable to register Wednesday after commune officials closed their offices to attend a meeting at district headquarters.
Yem Sean, 50, of Monorom commune, said she waited all morning for officials to open the station, only to be turned away for having insufficient documentation.
“They made me waste my time,” Yem Sean said of the absent commune authorities.
Prampi Makara district Governor Chup Khon defended the officials’ decision to close the registration office.
“This meeting was very important,” he said. “All commune chiefs need to present integration projects for their areas—it is not only my district.”
NEC President Im Suosdey was not impressed.
“This is completely wrong. We do not permit [commune officials] to do this,” he said.
Funcinpec lawmaker Keo Remy agreed, saying,“If [commune clerks and chiefs] are busy at a meeting, they need to transfer their duties to their deputy.”
Keo Remy also complained that some commune officials are creating unnecessary problems for citizens attempting to register.
“Today I went to see the Olympic polling station,” he said. “The clerks there created a lot of obstacles.
“There are many students who live in pagodas who don’t have student cards or election cards from 1998. They have witnesses to certify them, but they can’t register because the commune clerk and chief create obstacles,” he said.
Also in Prampi Makara district, a large line of people eager to register waited outside the district police station Wednesday to apply for identification cards.
District Police Chief Yim Simony said police are working overtime to ensure every prospective voter gets the documentation he or she needs.
“We are making around 400 to 500 cards a day, but we can’t finish because there are thousands of people standing in front of the station,” Yim Simony said. “Tonight we will work until 9 pm. I think we will have made around 800 ID cards today.”
Police stations around the capital reported similar lines.
(Additional reporting by Thet Sambath)
