Commune Vote Predictable, but Margins Less So
With Sunday’s commune elections quickly approaching, the five main political parties are all predicting substantial gains over how they faired in the last election in 2007, though none deny that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will continue to dominate the polls. And with the entrance of the relatively new Human Rights Party (HRP) to the mix, there may not be much room for improvement left for traditional opposition the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). In 2007, the CPP won 7,993 of the 11,353 commune councilor seats that were up for grabs and as a result reaped 1,592 of the 1,621 powerful commune chief positions. Despite making gains over the 2002 commune election, the SRP only walked away with 28 commune chief positions in 2007 and 2,660 councilor seats. According to SRP party whip Son Chhay, the party is expecting to take more than 100 commune chief positions on Sunday, and double the number of councilor seats. …
