By Allen Myers
Ever since the UN-supervised national
election of 1993, large numbers of national and international observers
have become a norm in Cambodian elections. These observers serve as
impartial witnesses of the conduct of the election and are thus able to
verify or reject claims of wrongdoing by election participants —
particularly systematic wrongdoing.
While observers have sometimes criticised particular aspects of an
election, they have generally been agreed that the election results
correspond with the intentions of the voter. This verification of
official results has been important for political stability in Cambodia,
because it allows unsuccessful candidates and their supporters to
understand that they have not been cheated.
However, there is one party that has never accepted the reports of the
observers. After every election since it was founded, the Sam Rainsy
Party has declared that the observers got it wrong. Always, the Sam
Rainsy Party was certain that, in some fashion or another, it had been
cheated of victory, despite the conclusions of the observers.
Therefore, it is not really surprising that Sam Rainsy and his
followers in the National Rescue Party (formed by a merger between the
SRP and the Human Rights Party) have decided to go to the source of the
problem: they propose getting rid of the observers.
In a statement dated 25 February, Sam Rainsy has called on
international and local NGOs and “friendly countries” not to send
observers for the National Assembly elections in July. The logic of the
demand is clear: The NRP expects to lose the election. It will claim the
election was rigged by the Cambodian People’s Party government. The
observers will say it wasn’t rigged, and that will undermine the NRP’s
ability to pose as democrats robbed of victory by totalitarian cheating.
Get rid of those observers, and the NRP may gain some credibility for
its claims, at least in foreign capitals, which is where it really
matters.
Of course, Sam Rainsy can’t express it that clearly. Instead, he pretends that the coming election has already
been rigged. But his “evidence” for this claim is merely a repeat of
the same claims he has made after every previous election. One hopes
that prospective observers will not be fooled by such self-serving
nonsense.
Footnote: Sam Rainsy’s statement attempts to imply “United Nations”
support for his position by quoting from the July 2012 report of Surya
Subedi, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia. That
report was remarkable for its illogic and ignorance of Cambodian
reality, which is perhaps why it had sunk without a trace until Sam
Rainy decided to attempt CPR. Those interested can read my criticism of
the report at
http://letters2pppapers.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=420&action=edit&message=1
(a much shorter version of this was published in the Phnom Penh Post of 27 September 2012).