Cambodian Youth Party president Pich Sros holds a press conference on December 21 regarding their plans for the 2022 commune council elections. CYP VIA FACEBOOK
With the commune council elections still over six months away, some political parties are saying they are ready with policy proposals that will win over the hearts of the Cambodian electorate.
The Cambodian Youth Party (CYP), for one, held a press conference on December 21 to discuss its platform and how they will go about campaigning to win the public’s support in the coming months.
CPY president Pich Sros said at the press conference that his party would identify and solve community problems by holding regular monthly public forums. The party would especially focus on combating drug trafficking and use at the commune level.
He said CPY would invest state funds into the purchase of ambulances to transport people to the hospital free of charge. And for homeless people aged 60 and over, his party would provide 100,000 riel ($25) per month and an increase in the services available from commune officials.
“My party would strengthen the market for agricultural products to increase the value of farmers’ produce. We will also provide commune-level vocational training in multiple career fields for youth who’ve dropped out of school in order to help them find jobs.
“We would increase the commune development budget to provide $600,000 per year each and we would increase transparency regarding how the budget is spent. We would also promote infrastructure development projects in every commune,” Sros said.
Sok Eysan, spokesman of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), told The Post on December 21 that his party has already prepared a platform, noting that many of its policies are already known to the public and broadly supported.
He said the CPP’s platform is outlined in a 10-page document titled National Development Policies 2022-2027 with a focus on development across all sectors.
“In short, our policies remain the same as before for the most part but with some additions – like a chef adding ingredients or spices to his dishes in order to make them perfectly delicious.
“We have detailed policies established for all sectors because, as the ruling party, we have to actually focus on carrying out the work of national development,” he said.
Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP) spokesman Loek Sothea said his party has already prepared its platform for the commune council elections, including the slogan “Capable Commune Chiefs”. The slogan, he explained, is meant to show that their candidates are conscientious and confident enough to take control of tasks at the commune level.
The party also has a policy to push for unification of the bureaucracy involved in local government administration that falls under the authority of the commune council such as the village chief, commune police, schools and health centres. He said all of these separate parts of the local government should be unified under one command structure in order to better serve the public.
“GDP believes that it is time to train and promote youth candidates who are qualified to perform the tasks of these commune-level offices. If we have good commune chiefs, then they will fulfil all of these duties – especially provision of public services – effectively and without delay,” he said.
Yem Ponharith, former opposition party lawmaker and founder of the Kampucheaniyum Party (KP), said the main policy platform espoused by his party for the elections involves improving public services and providing them in a timely manner as well as eliminating gambling in any form and combating drug offences in the communes.
His party would also develop the infrastructure of each commune by using community funds so that the people living there have good roads to travel on and transport products. He said the party would try to improve the market for agricultural produce and encourage higher prices.
The KP, he said, would take good care of the environment in each commune and pay attention to the upkeep of schools and pagodas. Should his party win, it would also create more jobs in the community by promoting investment in agricultural processing.
“Kampucheaniyum Party’s vision and priority is building the future for Cambodians starting with our schools. We will promote public transport to school for students in every community,” he said.
Political analyst Em Sovannara said each party needs to make their policies widely known in order to win public support. But whether they will have the ability to take action and achieve those polices is questionable even if they win some local elections because even the CPP has had trouble implementing its own “safe village-commune” policy despite having control over the entire government from the communes on up, he said.
For other parties, old and new, he said most of them will probably attract very little support from the public for their commune council election candidates because their resources are limited.
“The smaller parties that will compete against the ruling party should focus on public services and the current shortcomings of the services offered in the communes. If their policies respond to the people’s needs and they can make the public aware of their proposals, then I think they could begin to win the support and trust,” he said.
