Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Commune elections are 4 June 2017. Be prepared. Rallies and traffic jams in perspective.

Big turnout for the CNRP procession today in Phnom Penh and the rally which was held on the outskirts of the city. The PM's party, the CPP, also held a large outdoor meeting on Koh Pich.
Cambodia Daily covered the first day of the electoral campaign with photos :
Image
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More: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/live ... 17-130020/
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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Summary: The CPP (the party in power) has a strong political structure in place,controls the money, and the patronage system. Those who benefit from this will vote for the status quo, whereas those who feel that they have been side-lined or rejected by the present system will vote for change (party in opposition, the CNRP). The voting itself may be a matter of votes of content vs discontent, but the final election results will be very much slanted in favour of those who control the system.

Commune Vote Pits CPP Roots Against CNRP Momentum
“The deck is just stacked in such a way as to make it very hard for the opposition to win [commune] council seats and even harder to win chiefs,” wrote Sophal Ear, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and co-author of a study last year on local governance in Cambodia. “Even if they get control of the council (not an easy feat), they would have no money to do anything.”

Up against a formidable CPP party machine whose resources outstrip those of local governments, an election formula that favors incumbents, and voters’ traditional reluctance to risk old patronage relationships, the opposition party faces a long road ahead to both win communes and govern them effectively.
Full article: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections ... um-129968/
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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Looking into the future ,, What do you think will happen if the CPP loose the majority of votes in the local elections ? And even more interesting what will happen if the CPP loose to the CNRP next year . If they ever take place .
I think it will be made impossible for the CNRP to govern right from the start as most high ranking positions in government and the military will still be loyal to the CPP and will continue to take their orders from those above them,,, those that gave them their jobs.
Another big problem will be who own what. And I'm not just talking about those cars and truck with military plates. eg, Is HS house and compound owned by himself,, the party or the government. In the first two cases, who would be responsible for having weapons etc on private property, and in the third case if the government owned the land then the new government would have the right to remove all those items and take control of the property.
Man it's going to get messy next year, I hope everyone has a emergency and exit strategy in place.
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 7:43 pm Summary: The CPP (the party in power) has a strong political structure in place,controls the money, and the patronage system. Those who benefit from this will vote for the status quo, whereas those who feel that they have been side-lined or rejected by the present system will vote for change (party in opposition, the CNRP). The voting itself may be a matter of votes of content vs discontent, but the final election results will be very much slanted in favour of those who control the system.
Actually, I'm not so sure that's as self evident as it was in the past. I know some wealthly people here(edit: Cambodians) who ring their hands at the state of the judiciary etc. I had put them down as CPP enthusiasts due to their wealth and connections. But, they, like me, are disillusioned with both parties. Maybe they won't vote, which may sway it for the CNRP. Lots of fun ahead.
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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Duncan wrote: Fri May 26, 2017 9:11 am Looking into the future ,, What do you think will happen if the CPP loose the majority of votes in the local elections ? And even more interesting what will happen if the CPP loose to the CNRP next year . If they ever take place .
I think it will be made impossible for the CNRP to govern right from the start as most high ranking positions in government and the military will still be loyal to the CPP and will continue to take their orders from those above them,,, those that gave them their jobs.
Another big problem will be who own what. And I'm not just talking about those cars and truck with military plates. eg, Is HS house and compound owned by himself,, the party or the government. In the first two cases, who would be responsible for having weapons etc on private property, and in the third case if the government owned the land then the new government would have the right to remove all those items and take control of the property.
Man it's going to get messy next year, I hope everyone has a emergency and exit strategy in place.

I think what usually happens is old grievances due to abuse of power - or really, whatever, come to the foreground. If the CNRP were to win by a large majority it may be hard for him to maintain control. But if they won by a narrow margin you can pretty much expect the same as last time, or suspect even more of the same. If it gets too much with retaliatory fighting, martal law will be declared with a curfew, and tge army will take over in the 'interim'.
Land will be a major talking point
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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MOD lashes out on social media in reply to a joint statement by Cambodian civil society groups that the army and police should remain neutral in the context of the elections.

Ministry of Defence hits back at NEC’s neutrality guidelines for army
Fri, 26 May 2017
The Ministry of Defence on Friday lashed out at civil society and election monitoring groups, claiming a recent statement urging the armed forces to maintain their neutrality during the election process had tarnished the military and “could not be accepted”.

With the commune vote just over a week away, the statement follows weeks of bellicose rhetoric from top leaders of the security forces, including a recent threat from Defence Minister Tea Banh to beat opposition protesters “until their teeth come out” should they contest the results of the June 4 poll.

“The Ministry of Defence spokesman would like to deny and condemn the statement from Comfrel, associations and civil society in Cambodia about the election situation,” read the statement, posted on the ministry’s website this morning.
“[The statement] has the intention to incite and to tarnish the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. It is insulting and looks down on the honour, role and duty of the [military].”

Reached yesterday, Nicfec executive director Sam Kuntheamy said it appeared the Defence Ministry had misinterpreted the joint statement, which he said was not meant as criticism.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/commune-el ... lines-army
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

Post by timmydownawell »

So how do the commune elections work exactly?

My assumption is a Khan is effectively a local council, and each Sangkat is like a ward of their respective Khan, right?

So do the people vote directly for their local Sangkat chief? Or do they just vote at Khan level for a winner-takes-all-Sangkats kind of thing?
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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According to this, the preliminary election results will be announced at 4pm on 4 June, the day of the elections. What time do polling booths close ?

29/05/2017 14:37
Phnom Penh (FN), May 29 - The National Election Committee (NEC) will provide an overview of election campaigns on June 2, 2017.

Chairman Sik Bun Hok will announce the preliminary election results at 4:00 pm on June 04, 2017.

Campaigning political parties distributed flyers, hats, T-shirts, logo banners, slogans, and promoted their political messages through the use of mobile amplifiers.

The campaign lasts for 14 days, from May 20th to June 2nd 2017.
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Re: Campaigning starts for 2017 commune elections

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Voters queued at polling stations in the capital, Phnom Penh, before they opened at 7am (00:00 GMT). They close at 3pm (08:00 GMT) and results are expected in the hours after that.

The last time Cambodians went to the polls, in 2013's national elections, the opposition made huge gains, spurred in part by a significant appetite for change among young voters.

The opposition says it only lost that vote because of widespread fraud, something the government denies.
But analysts say that result was a scare for a leader unused to losing and that the recent crackdown on the opposition is an attempt to ensure this does not happen again.

Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Phnom Penh, said that although these are only local elections, there is still a lot at stake.
"The CNRP feels that it can build on the good results that they had in the last general election four years ago and then carry that forward into the next general election which is coming up in July next year," he said.

In a possible sign of nerves, HE broke with his tradition of avoiding the campaign trail to lead a massive pro-government rally for his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) on Friday in Phnom Penh.
"We haven't seen HE on the campaign trail during an election in something like 20 years, so that may well tell us something about how he is feeling about the results of these communal elections," Hay said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/c ... 35364.html
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