The Sam Rainsy Party is threatening to boycott the first-ever Senate elections, which the party considers “artificial and anti-democratic” because they exclude the general public from voting, opposition leader Sam Rainsy wrote in an e-mail Sunday.
“We are considering boycotting such an artificial and anti-democratic election, which would lead to a shocking distortion of the will of the people,” he wrote.
The Senate Election Law, which the Senate passed by 47 of 49 votes on Monday, permits only elected commune council members and parliamentarians to vote for senators in the upcoming Senate election, thus excluding the general public.
The first Senate elections are slated for 2006. Until now, the Senate, which was created in 1999, has merely extended its five-year mandate one year at a time as no legislation had been introduced to outline the selection process for new senators following the conclusion of its five-year mandate.
In a statement Sunday, the Sam Rainsy Party called for Senate elections to be postponed until new commune council elections are held in 2007.
Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian Keo Remy said Sunday that electing senators with the current crop of commune councilors would be tantamount to a rigged vote.
“Why do we hold it?” he asked. “It is a cover-up for an appointed Senate, a waste of the national budget.”
Supporters of the Senate Election Law have argued that commune councilors and parliamentarians should be entitled to vote on behalf of their constituents because they are democratically elected.
Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said Monday that if commune members and parliamentarians vote along party lines the opposition will likely get at most four Senate seats, Funcinpec 11 to 12, and the CPP more than 40 of the Senate’s 61 seats.
“I will not run in such a weak, rubber stamp Senate election,” opposition Senator Meng Rita said. Monday.
