Council Chief of SRP Complains about Propaganda of CPP
Friday, July 04, 2008 - Author Tiep Seiha
Even though, election campaign is a very importance tool for finding the voters. It is not all every people can join this event. In his office, the council chief of Sam Rangsy Party (SRP) in Stung Treng province, Puy Chanthala said, “The civil servants have to be prohibited strongly in supporting of the election campaign every time”.
Sitting and speaking strongly in his office, he said, “even though my party, SRP does not have enough money to challenge the CPP, I do love the politics policy of the SRP”.
SRP-man, Chanthala complaints about the election campaign of the CPP that the CPP violates in the article 8.6 based on the election campaign book of the Commune Council Election 2007. Those civil servants who have involved in the election campaign legally should be seriously punished.
He said based on the article 8.6, the CPP always grabs the working hours of other people to join the election campaign, while in the article 8.6 illustrates, “…all civil servants who actual support the election campaign shall be prohibited such as Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, National Polices, and other authorities who are in their duties. All those civil servants shall not involve in march and in rally to support both in which political party and in which candidate…”
Concerning with the complaint of Puy Chanthala SRP-man, the activist of the CPP and the forestry authority in Stung Treng, Mey Menglim said that not all CPP-Campaigners are breaking the law. “Even though, I always participate in the election campaign of the CPP, I do it when my boss appoints me to do and when I am out of my state work. If I do propaganda in my work time, I have to ask permission for my leaving.” According to the article 8.6, Menglim CPP-man claims that it is no problem at all for doing propaganda in his free time. However, SRP-man Chanthala does not agree.
Regarding to these problems, Chanthala used to file a complaint against the CPP to the Communal Election Commission (CEC) in Stung Treng, but the CEC in Stung Treng seem not care about the complain. He also complained that sometimes the propaganda was existed in the provincial hall. More or less people who live there got influence.
In the Election Campaign Book of the Commune Council Election 2007 in article 8.7 also mentions about the joining the election campaign of the civil servants, “…civil servants, authorities, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, National Polices, and judges authority can involve in the election campaign and can support either the political party or the candidate after their working hours. But all these people should not wear authority uniform and any weapons during they are participating the election campaign…”
Propaganda is very complex. Puy Chanthalak, the older brother of SRP-man Puy Chanthala and also the chief of Provincial Election Commission Stung Treng said that his institution got a lot of complaint letters from the SRP about the propaganda of the CPP. But he added that people have the right to support their parties. “This is true even for the civil servants.” If those civil servants were doing the propaganda outside their working hours, the election law would not apply to their activities.
