Phnom Penh Bans Cambodia Opposition’s Thumbprint Campaign

Authorities in Phnom Penh on Wednesday banned Cambodia’s opposition party from using public spaces to collect thumbprints  for a petition calling for U.N. and foreign intervention in the country’s political crisis following disputed polls. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) plans to collect at least 3 million thumbprints for the petition to present the U.N. in a bid to force Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to conduct an investigation into vote fraud it says the CPP used to win the July 28 election. Phnom Penh Municipality spokesman Long Dymong told RFA’s Khmer Service that CNRP activists gathering thumbprints in the city’s public spaces had “provoked chaos” in the capital and “disturbed public order,” adding that the opposition had neglected to seek permission from city authorities. “The CNRP can only collect thumbprints at their political party headquarters, but not in public places,” he said. After municipal authorities announced the ban, security guards at the popular Chbar Ambol market area refused to allow CNRP officials to meet with vendors to add their names to the petition, according to one shop owner who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity. “We vendors voluntarily agreed to provide our thumbprints to the CNRP—no one forced us to do so. But the market security stopped us,” she said. … CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha called the municipality’s ban “illegal” and an “abuse of the people’s rights.” He said that the decision to collect thumbprints for a petition was part of a bid by his party to reduce tension in the capital as the CNRP and its supporters continued protests against polls it says were tainted by fraud, and calling for an independent, U.N.-backed probe into the irregularities. …

 Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/petition-10092013174335.html