Potential Voters Deterred by Election Cynicism

On Wednesday afternoon, about 10 motorcycle taxi drivers were sitting around talking about the upcoming July general elections—and why they don’t plan to vote.

Heng Dara, 34, of Chamkar Mon district, said he had found the voter registration process a bit inconvenient. But more than that, he said, he just doesn’t care.

“I have voted three times al­ready, and I don’t see any development in my country,” he said. “The government isn’t doing its duty to serve the voters.”

Voter registration has ended, with more than 90 percent of the estimated eligible population on voter rolls, but with only about 70 percent of the estimated number of new voters.

Election observers and opposition officials have hurled all the usual accusations: Technical difficulties, lack of education for voters and officials, poor handling of complaints, unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and political bias have all prevented people from signing up for the July 27 polls, they say.

But there’s another factor at work, as Heng Dara and his friends attest. It is apathy, pure and simple.

Many Cambodians say they don’t believe their vote will make a difference, or they don’t believe government has the power to change society.

Their attitudes resemble those in far more advanced democracies such as those of Europe, the US and Japan, where voter turn­out has steadily declined, election by election, according to studies. It is as if the more entrenched de­moc­racy gets, the less people see it as relevant—or the less they trust it.

“I don’t want to waste my time registering to vote,” said Kim Horn, 26, of Sihanoukville’s Prey Nop district. “If I don’t vote, there are still plenty of people who will.”

Yong Kim Eng, director of the Khmer Youth Association, said the phenomenon is especially pro­nounced among young people, particularly in rural areas.

“The majority of young [eligible] voters aren’t registering be­cause the commune clerks don’t encourage them and they don’t see any development or change in society,” he said.

Workers, too, are increasingly abstaining out of a combination of confusion about registration regulations and hopelessness about the elections’ potential, said Moung Morthry, spokesman for the Free Trade Union of the Work­ers of Cambodia.

Attitudes like these reflect Cam­bodians’ unrealistic expectations, said Koul Panha, president of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections.

“Elections don’t mean [the government] can develop the country overnight,” he said. “Voters have to keep pushing political parties to keep their promises.”

Koul Panha also said organizations such as his would do their utmost to guarantee a free, fair election environment that voters could trust.

The National Election Com­mit­tee is aware of the apathy trend but unable to do anything about it, committee spokesman Leng So­chea said.

“We can’t force voters to register—it’s their right to vote, and it’s up to them whether they use it,” he said. “We’re like cake sellers who want to sell a lot of cakes: The NEC wants to register a lot of people,” but only the people can decide whether to buy the product.

Yet another group that has be­come cynical about an election pro­cess they see as a sham are teachers, said Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian In­de­pen­dent Teachers’ Association.

“Teachers don’t want to vote because they say that the party they keep voting for never wins the election,” he said. At the same time, though, he appealed to the teachers not to lose hope and to continue voting for change.

Rong Chhun acknowledged that one vote, or even one bloc of votes, might not change the political scene—but he said it was worth a try.

“If we don’t vote, our misery can only continue,” he said.

 

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