Phnom Penh’s 5 New Districts Create Fears of Gerrymandering
Phnom Penh City Hall’s plans to undertake the largest redrawing of the city’s administrative boundaries in decades, by creating five new districts before May’s district and city-level council elections, is likely an effort to gerrymander voting constituencies, a senior opposition party member said Monday. Municipal government spokesman Long Dimanche said on Sunday that City Hall would create five new districts before the council elections by either partitioning or redrawing the boundaries of the city’s existing nine districts. … CNRP chief whip Son Chhay said that redrawing the city’s districts before the elections could see new boundaries drawn around Phnom Penh’s 96 communes to secure the ruling CPP more council positions than it would win now if the nine district borders remained intact. … Phnom Penh’s 810 commune councilors will turn out on May 18 to vote in elections for the councils of the districts in which they are located, as well as in an overall election for the Phnom Penh municipal council. An overall victory for the CPP in the council elections is likely, with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party holding 570 of the 810 city councilor positions following the July 2012 commune elections. Political analyst Kem Ley dismissed suggestions from the government that redrawing Phnom Penh’s districts, which had two new districts added in recent years to the original seven, was to increase administrative efficiency, adding that the new “political arrangement” would ensure the CPP maximizes its votes. …
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penhs-5-new-districts-create-fears-of-gerrymandering-47269/
