Voters were bombarded by a blitzkrieg of promises from the 39 political

parties during the month-long campaign period. A record number of voters

- 5,057,679 - cast their ballots on election day, a clear message that Cambodians

were filled with hope that democracy would make a difference in their lives.

The Center for Social Development has reprinted an edited translation of

the political platforms that the winning parties submitted to the CSD before

the election for its non-partisan Voter's Guide as a reminder to both the

voters and the parties of the promises that were made - greater respect

for human rights, elimination of corruption, improvments to public education

and health care, an end to war and many others.

 CPP

Motto Independence,

Peace, Liberty, Democracy, Neutrality, Social Development

President Chea Sim

Goals and objectives Cambodian People's Party is cemented to the

ideal of patriotism, sharing woe and happiness with people in all circumstances.

The party will do everything for the people. CPP's stance is to:

- Strengthen, respect and defend the constitution.

- Practice free multiparty democracy, respect human rights and freedom of

the press, and ensure the rights of all people as stipulated in the universal

communique of the United Nations.

- Continue carrying out a national reconciliation policy, strengthening

a state of law, reforming administration and the national armed forces.

- Undertake free market economy, ensure economic stability, attract investors,

eliminate corruption, theft, sex and drug trafficking. Furthermore, CPP

will seek assistance for constructing the country and for raising the pay

of civil servants and armed forces.

- CPP defends the independent sovereignty and territorial

integrity of181,035 km2 of sea and space.

- Settle border disputes by peaceful negotiation, not force.

- Block the in-flow of immigrants and solve the problem through law enforcement.

Education

- To enable children old enough to go to school to enroll in public school

without paying school fees.

- To promote informal education to achieve the goal "Education is for

everyone" in order to eliminate illiteracy.

- To upgrade the quality of education by connecting education with production.

Agriculture

- CPP recognizes the legal ownership of farmers

and aims to promote the issuing of land ownership certificates to farmers

in conjunction with a non-taxation policy on farmland for small-scale family

production.

- To promote the rehabilitation of farmland, the construction of irrigation

systems, crop intensification, and cultivation of secondary crops. CPP implements

the agricultural product price support policy.

Health Care

- To upgrade the quality of public health services by giving priority to

rural health services.

- To boost education on the prevention of infections and chronic diseases

in order to decrease diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, sex-related

disease, AIDS, diarrhea, dengue, cancer, etc.

- To improve the health conditions of women and children through the expansion

of a birth spacing program, vaccination, nutrition and family health care.

- To provide access to necessary public health services for elder persons,

the handicapped and the poor.

Environment

- To strengthen the protection and preservation of the environment based

on natural resource management laws.

- To introduce environmental issues into the education program in order

to upgrade awareness of the environment in teachers, pupils and students.

- To block environmental pollution.

- To boost the development of environmental tourism in order to reduce to

exploitation of natural resources.

Peace Solution

- To end war and make a nationwide peace which guarantees there will be

no return to a genocide regime. The CPP is in favor of the law to outlaw

the Khmer Rouge. CPP supports the "win-win" policy of the government

which was raised by second Prime Minister Hun Sen.

- To carry on integrating the remaining armed forces and people in areas

under the control of outlawed guerrillas as done in Samlot, Pailin, Malay

and Anlong Veng.

 FUNCINPEC

 

Motto Neutrality,

Independence, Peace, and Cooperation

President Prince Norodom Ranariddh

Goals and objectives

- To respect the 1993 Constitution with the motto

"Nation, Religion, King".

- To defend national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity

asprovided for in appendix 5 of the Paris Peace Accord.

- To organize the civil administration, military and police system to be

neutral, clean and effective.

- To strictly enforce migration and nationality laws.

- To ensure the respect of international treaties on human rights, rights

for women, children and ethics.

- To boost development to upgrade living conditions, to eliminate poverty

and to attract foreign investment.

- To develop human resources by vocational training for youth.

- To fight corruption by upgrading the living standards of civil servants,

soldiers and police.

- To fight drug trafficking.

- To act against dictatorship, militarism and violence.

- To investigate the loss of State property.

Education

- To reform the curriculum, provide books and materials, and train teachers

and education officials to govern schools.

- To ensure equality in schooling, reduce illiteracy, and ensure that every

child has the opportunity to go to school.

- To direct education toward human resources development for effectiveness

in jobs.

- To encourage partnerships from various sectors of the society, particularly

the private sector.

Agriculture

- To increase paddy rice yield and other crops, and the price of the products.

- To improve the quality of the products through the introduction of new

techniques.

- To defend land ownership of farmers and strongly protest against the seizure

of farmland.

- To revise and resettle the forestry concession according to the guidelines

of the World Bank and UNDP.

Health Care

- To retrain public health officials and to upgrade the quality of clinics

and hospitals.

- To provide education on the importance of individual and family health.

- To control the distribution of fake medicine or expired date medicine.

- To launch a vaccination campaign against tuberculosis, polio and measles

for all children.

- To provide education on the use of medicine and birth control methods.

- To spread information on the dangers of AIDS.

- To conduct a blood testing campaign for sex workers.

Environment

- To manage the forest and increase tree replanting.

- To control and prevent the coastal zone from contamination by poisonous

wastes.

- To preserve sources of water from damage by factories or mine exploitation.

- To control the fish population by establishing research and training institutes

and to protect fish.

Peace

- To control and decrease private weapons.

- To get rid of anarchy in both the city and rural areas.

- To eliminate robberies, thefts and militia men.

- To organize armed forces to become territorial integrity defenders, people

protectors and developers.

- Our goal is to move forward to the kind of peace that we had during the

Sangkum Reastr Niyum period by means of national reconciliation and cooperation.

FUNCINPEC will never use violence to solve the problems of the nation.

  SAM RAINSY

Motto Morality,

Honesty, and Justice

President Sam Rainsy

Goals and objectives

- To put an end to war between Khmer and Khmer in order to bring a real

peace to the nation.

- To reclaim and defend the Cambodian's territorial integrity through legal

means.

- To deal with illegal immigrants by non-violent means.

-To get rid of corruption by increasing the salary of civil servants and

armed forces to a suitable level.

- To improve social justice by protecting the poor, the vulnerable and victims.

- To assure and protect current property and house ownership, and provide

adequate farmland and convenient shelter.

- To ensure the respect of human rights and fair, liberal democracy.

- To ensure the neutrality of public administration by keeping the present

position of every government official, but for the administrations to be

independent from political parties.

- To protect and preserve natural resources, namely forestry and fishery.

- To revise and correct any public contracts not being in conformity with

the law, or not serving the public good.

- To ensure the neutrality of the royal armed forces, police and military

police.

Education

- To set up a modern standard for education.

- To boost technological training namely in agriculture, industry, the electronics

business, electric power construction, so that Khmer children have real

technical skills to participate in nation building in all areas.

- To completely eliminate the certificate buying and corruption within the

education system.

Agriculture

- To make land title reform in order to provide enough land for farming

and housing.

- To provide technical assistance to farmers by sending agricultural specialists

to help them understand intensified agriculture techniques.

- To promote the price of agricultural products such as rice, maize, beans

to be in proportion with market price.

- To set a suitable price for fertilizer.

- To construct irrigation systems in areas of water shortage

- To encourage investment in agricultural products processing for both domestic

consumption and export.

Health Care

- To set up a public health care system such as hospitals, health centers,

medicine to provide services to people both in the cities and rural areas.

- To organize a compatible system of treatment and prevention to reduce

the number of sick.

- To set up a permanent program for health care education

Environment

- To stop the destruction of forests, log exports, and to take tough legal

action against offenders

- To prohibit factory construction in towns, as well as the release of waste

into underground drainage system or into rivers or lakes.

- To control garbage throwing in towns and public places.

- To grant incentive awards to people who are interested in protecting and

preserving the natural resources

Peace

- To abolish the law outlawing the Khmer Rouge for full national reconciliation.

- To convert the budget left from war waging to help handicaps, widows,

orphans, to clear mines, and to develop the country.

- To maintain good relations with neighboring countries on the basis of

mutual respect and non-interference.

 

Edited extract of the Voter's Guide published by

the Center for Social Development, a non-partisan organisation which supports

all parties in furthering democracy in Cambodia. The Voter's Guide was made

possible through cooperation with the National Election Committee, COFFEL.

COMFREL, and with the support of the New Zealand Embassy and USAID through

the Asia Foundation.