Monitors, Opposition Party Reject NEC Plan

Election monitors and Sam Rainsy Party members Thurs­day dis­missed an amendment to the draft electoral law that would overhaul the National Election Committee, saying the changes would do little to make the NEC independent of the government.

This follows a meeting during which Ministry of Interior officials attempted to explain the amendment to NGOs and some UN agency officials.

The Council of Ministers today is expected to discuss the amend­ment, which calls for an NEC composed of five “dignitaries” to be chosen by the interior minis­try and approved by the Nat­ional Assembly. The amendment is an attempt to address complaints that the current 11-member NEC is both too large and under the sway of the CPP.

“I do not think there is going to be a change,” said Hang Puthea, executive director of Neutral Im­partial Committee for Free and Fair El­ections, one of Cambodia’s three main election monitors. “I think we should have formed one neutral committee to choose [the new NEC members].”

Sam Rainsy Party Deputy Sec­re­tary-General Meng Rita was more pessimistic, saying, “This amendment is not positive. It is working and serving the CPP.”

The amendment stems from a suggestion from Prime Minister Hun Sen and passed on to the co-ministers of interior this month about how the NEC should be overhauled.

Earlier options offered by opposition and Funcinpec officials were to allow the three parties with parliamentary seats to choose a member. The other com­mittee members would be chosen by NGOs and King Nor­odom Sihanouk.

Meng Rita claimed the proposed five-member NEC has al­ready been divvied up between the government’s coalition partners—with three seats going to people picked by the CPP and two going to royalist candidates.

The Interior Minis­try’s administration director general, Sak Setha, ack­nowledged Thursday that the amendment has been met with resistance, but said other suggestions for a new NEC would be “very complicated.”

“Why not let the National Assembly members, who are voted for by the people, decide the members?” Sak Setha asked.