The Human Rights Party is ready to join the main opposition party, of Sam Rainsy, for future elections
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 07:26:00 -0800 (PST)
Small Party Leader Laments Slow Reform
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
05 December 2008
Kem Sokha, whose Human Rights Party gained three National Assembly
seats in July’s election, becoming a part of the opposition, said
Thursday he was disappointed in the slow pace of Cambodian reform and
the absence of the checks and balances that make democracies
functional.
Fifteen years of reform had failed to bring true democratic reform, he
said, as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, under the rule of Prime
Minister Hun Sen, controlled all branches of government.
“There are no checks and balances,” Kem Sokha said, as a guest on
“Hello VOA,” leading to the loss of representation for “about half a
million voices.”
The CPP won a commanding 90 seats in the 2008 National Assembly
election, and it has put party members as the head of each of the
body’s nine committees.
Kem Sokha said that a rule of the National Assembly requiring 11
parliamentarians to form in order for one member to address the body
was a regression “toward communism, like the ‘80s.”
Democracy require political freedom, economic freedom and social
freedom, he said, adding that the system of administration in Cambodia
should also change, graduating out of the hands of a single leader,
such as Hun Sen.
“It is now just based on one individual, who, when he wants something,
they do, and when he does not want to do, they do not do,” he said.
The CPP won their seats through fear, gift-giving, vote-buying,
threats and fraud, he said, adding that if a neutral election
committee from abroad were to organize the elections, the ruling party
would completely lose.
The Human Rights Party is ready to join the main opposition party, of
Sam Rainsy, for future elections, he said, denying rumors he would
challenge Sam Rainsy for the presidency.
.
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