Hitting out at widespread and persistent rebukes of the way it has handled complaints stemming from July’s bitterly contested national election, the Constitutional Council on Thursday threatened to sue its critics, warning that they could face prison for airing critical views.
The threats come as independent election monitors and the opposition CNRP, which continues to challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s victory in the July 28 poll, have repeatedly criticized the Council’s handling of voting-day complaints, accusing the body of subservience to Mr. Hun Sen’s long ruling CPP.
The Council issued a statement Thursday defending its independence and citing a provision in the Law on Organization and Functioning of the Constitutional Council that stipulates jail time for those who refuse to respect its decisions.
In its statement, the Council said its decisions “are always collectively approved and unanimously voiced by members of the Constitutional Council as a whole and they are permanent decisions with influence over all powers stipulated in the Constitution.”
The threat of legal action follows immediately after the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) took specific aim at the Council’s president, Ek Sam Ol. In a statement issued Wednesday, Comfrel said Mr. Sam Ol’s role as a former lawmaker in Mr. Hun Sen’s CPP rendered the Council incapable of remaining impartial in its decisions.
The Council’s statement cites Article 36 of the law governing the body, which lays out a prison term of up to one year and a maximum fine of 600,000 riel, about $150, for “any person who refuses to respect the decision of the Constitutional Council or who obstructs the operation of the Constitutional Council.”
Council spokesman Prom Nhean Vichet said the statement was not aimed at anyone in particular.
“The statement doesn’t target Comfrel in particular, but it applies to any person or institution that fails to respect the decisions delivered by the Constitutional Council,” he said.
Asked to clarify, Mr. Nhean Vichet said individuals were free to say they disagreed with a Council decision, but questioning the body’s independence, he said, was a step too far.
“To respect the decision of the [Council] doesn’t mean that someone cannot criticize the decision as good or bad,” he said.
“But if someone alleges that a decision delivered by the Constitutional Council is made incorrectly, without thorough consideration, or is partisan, it is not just criticism but disrespects the law. It is a permanent decision, so everyone needs to follow it.”
Reacting to the Council’s statement, Comfrel executive director Koul Panha said he was confident his organization had not violated the law and was not worried about the threats of legal action. Mr. Panha said the law’s talk of respecting the Council’s decision clearly referred to implementation only, not verbal commentary.
“The principle of that article targets powerful people who do not implement the order” of the Council, Mr. Panha said.
“Failing to respect and interfering means, for example, that a ruling party doesn’t follow an order and refuses to give up power. That means the party doesn’t implement the decision of the Council. But to criticize and review a decision is the right to [free] expression,” he said.
Besides impugning the Council’s independence, Comfrel’s statement on Wednesday also accuses the body of failing to investigate complaints that a polling station in Kandal province closed early on election day and that state vehicles were used to ferry officials to voting sites in Siem Reap province.
Comfrel accused the Council of simply considering reports submitted to it by the National Election Committee (NEC), which had rejected the complaints earlier and has also been accused of pro-CPP partisanship.
NEC President Im Suosdey is a former youth leader of Mr. Hun Sen’s CPP.
The Constitutional Council rejected the last of all 15 complaints submitted by the CNRP last week, closing all existing legal channels the opposition had to challenge the election-day results.
Like Comfrel, the CNRP had also accused the Council of bias toward the ruling party throughout the process, claiming that the Council and the CPP were effectively one and the same.
CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said his comments regarding the Council were not a violation of the law and that he did not expect the party to be sued.
“They want to threaten those who speak out,” he said of the Council’s statement.
“Is it possible to put in prison roughly three million people?” Mr. Sovann added, referring to the more than 2.9 million Cambodians who officially cast ballots for the CNRP in July.
“Instead, they should warn themselves who make the decision that is unfair.”
The CNRP filed a lawsuit at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against three top NEC officials and an unspecified number of subordinates on Wednesday, accusing them of forging election related documents.
Mr. Sovann said a lawsuit against the Council was not out of the question.
“This is only the first step,” he said. “Wait and see.”
(Additional reporting by Zsombor Peter)
