The National Assembly on Friday began its much-anticipated debate on proposed amendments to the law on national elections that would restructure the National Election Committee.
The amendments, drafted by the Ministry of Interior, together would alter 72 articles of the 1998 election law. Most hotly discussed has been the proposal that the NEC be reduced to five members—respected “dignitaries” chosen by the Interior Ministry.
On Friday, debate on the law did not yet begin because Monh Saphan and Ek Sam Ol, chair and deputy chair of the legislation committee, spent the whole session reading from the draft law.
Touting the virtues of his ministry’s proposal, co-Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said, “These amendments deserve credit from political parties, voters, civil society and the international community.”
He said the draft’s provisions would help to ensure free and fair elections in next year’s scheduled July 27 legislative vote. Under the proposal, votes would be counted at commune election committee offices rather than individual polling places, “to avoid possible threats, retaliation and other abuses.”
The amendments also set penalties for vote-buying and guarantee all parties equal access to state media. Previously, vote-buying was not specifically outlawed and equal media access—promised but not delivered by the NEC in the Feb 3 commune elections—was not guaranteed by law.
However, Sar Kheng noted that unlike state media, “private media [would] have the full right to express their opinions” under the proposal—an exception that worried members of the opposition.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Tioulong Saumura said on Sunday that the proposed amendments were “equal only on paper, but in practice not at all, since the ruling CPP controls all private radio and television stations. “The law sounds good [in that it] promises equal access, but of course it doesn’t really,” because other parties don’t have their own private television and radio stations.
She demanded that the amendments give equal access to all parties in public and private media alike.