Election NGO Comfrel mustered fewer than 2,000 observers on Sunday; Nicfec only around 20 — both mere fractions of total polling places. Political pressure and loss of funding have decimated groups that once provided leading assessments of Cambodian elections.
The 2022 commune election has turned into a surprising contest between the might of the ruling CPP and the resurrected Candlelight Party. Both parties had impressive displays of support in Phnom Penh on Friday, with supporters braving the monsoon rains lashing the city.
Ahead of the June 5 vote, the country currently has only one commune chief who is not from the ruling CPP: the KNUP’s Da Chhean in Banteay Meanchey. Chhean is now working with the CPP.
O’Smach commune was the exception to the ruling party’s near-sweep of Oddar Meanchey province in 2017. Even the sitting CPP commune chief admits: “People here think differently. If they have a problem with their leaders, they want to change them.”
The sugarcane company that evicted them is gone, but Preah Vihear farmers say others are now moving into their land. The commune chief hasn’t intervened, and the opposition candidate says he has “no right” and laughs nervously.
In Kampong Thom’s Sakream commune, the Grassroots Democratic Party’s Choeun Nasy spent five years trying to work with the ruling CPP in his role as second deputy chief. “I almost gave up,” he says.
Thvan Trel is one 10 officials implicated by the Interior Ministry in Mondulkiri land grabs, and is running again for commune chief at the June 5 election. Local Bunong residents blame her for the sale and loss of their burial grounds.
If the Cambodia Reform Party were to win commune positions, it would work to empower the grassroots and ensure there is no corruption in the delivery of public services, said party founder Ou Chanrath. He had to contest this election because an uncontested ballot risked turning Cambodia into a “second China,” he said.
Pate commune chief Chhay Thy is proud of the two roads he built over the past five years. The former rights worker turned ruling party politician said he was confident of ongoing support from residents, but some said they wanted a Jarai leader, not a Khmer outsider.
The party won just over 1,000 votes in Mondulkiri in 2017, and many local residents don’t even know its name — only its elephant logo. But amid rampant land loss — burial grounds seemingly targeted by brokers — the Indigenous People’s Party wants to push back.
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