| English.news.cn 2013-07-21 18:41:31 |
   
 
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PHNOM PENH, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian opposition leader Sam
Rainsy asked the National Election Committee (NEC) on Sunday to add his
name to the voters list and the official candidates list for the fifth
National Assembly elections on July 28.
Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party ( CNRP), returned to Cambodia on Friday after living nearly four years abroad in self-imposed exile to avoid an 11-year jail term on charges of disinformation and destruction of public property.
He was pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen on July 12.
In a letter to NEC chairman Im Suosdey on Sunday, Sam Rainsy said: "Based on the royal pardon granted to me by the King on July 12, I'd like to ask Your Excellency to study possibilities to add my name to the voters list and to the official candidates list for the fifth National Assembly elections on July 28."
Tep Nytha, NEC secretary general, said that the committee would decide on this case in accordance with the election law.
"According to the law, Sam Rainsy can neither vote nor stand as a candidate for the upcoming polls because the voters list and the candidates list have already been officially recognized by the NEC so that they cannot be changed," he told Xinhua.
Sam Rainsy was deleted from the voters register in November on the ground that he was a convicted criminal at that time.
Senior lawmaker Cheam Yeap, a central committee member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said that Sam Rainsy has no legal chance of being included into the voters list and the candidates list.
He said Sam Rainsy's request can be fulfilled only if King Norodom Sihamoni intervened.
Sok Touch, deputy director general of the International Relations Institute, thought Sam Rainsy should be allowed to run for the polls, or the opposition party will probably not recognize the results of the election if it loses.
Sam Rainsy told the U.S.-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Friday that if he is to be barred from contesting the upcoming election, he will not recognize any victory by Prime Minister Hun Sen's CPP in the polls.
"If I can't participate in the election, ....the whole international community will condemn the result and regard this as a sham election," RFA's Khmer Service quoted Sam Rainsy as saying.
Eight political parties are contesting the election with about 9.67 million eligible voters.
Hun Sen's party is widely expected to win overwhelmingly.
In the last election in July 2008, Hun Sen's party won 90 seats in the 123-seat National Assembly.
Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party ( CNRP), returned to Cambodia on Friday after living nearly four years abroad in self-imposed exile to avoid an 11-year jail term on charges of disinformation and destruction of public property.
He was pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen on July 12.
In a letter to NEC chairman Im Suosdey on Sunday, Sam Rainsy said: "Based on the royal pardon granted to me by the King on July 12, I'd like to ask Your Excellency to study possibilities to add my name to the voters list and to the official candidates list for the fifth National Assembly elections on July 28."
Tep Nytha, NEC secretary general, said that the committee would decide on this case in accordance with the election law.
"According to the law, Sam Rainsy can neither vote nor stand as a candidate for the upcoming polls because the voters list and the candidates list have already been officially recognized by the NEC so that they cannot be changed," he told Xinhua.
Sam Rainsy was deleted from the voters register in November on the ground that he was a convicted criminal at that time.
Senior lawmaker Cheam Yeap, a central committee member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said that Sam Rainsy has no legal chance of being included into the voters list and the candidates list.
He said Sam Rainsy's request can be fulfilled only if King Norodom Sihamoni intervened.
Sok Touch, deputy director general of the International Relations Institute, thought Sam Rainsy should be allowed to run for the polls, or the opposition party will probably not recognize the results of the election if it loses.
Sam Rainsy told the U.S.-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Friday that if he is to be barred from contesting the upcoming election, he will not recognize any victory by Prime Minister Hun Sen's CPP in the polls.
"If I can't participate in the election, ....the whole international community will condemn the result and regard this as a sham election," RFA's Khmer Service quoted Sam Rainsy as saying.
Eight political parties are contesting the election with about 9.67 million eligible voters.
Hun Sen's party is widely expected to win overwhelmingly.
In the last election in July 2008, Hun Sen's party won 90 seats in the 123-seat National Assembly.
Editor:
Hou Qiang
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