The Cambodia Human Rights Action Committee(CHRAC),COMFREL,NICFEC, and Advocacy Commission (Star Kampuchea) strongly express our support for holding of the second term of Senatorial Elections, which shall be truly elected by Cambodian people in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Recently, a comment of January 3, 2003 of His Majesty Samdach Preah Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia was truly acknowledged. His Majesty refused to use his special privileges to appoint all Senators, who are not elected through the elections, stating that "The Senate must be born from people". This is a very important opinion and has given legal claim for a unique basis for the executive and legislative branches to take into consideration.

According to the Constitution of Kingdom of Cambodia, Chapter VIII, amended Article 99, paragraph 3 regarding "Senate" states that, "Some Senators shall be nominated and some shall be elected non-universally." This kind of the election is very important for the observance of and respect for democracy and the Constitution in Cambodia. On the one hand, it ensures full participation from all parties who will serve public interest of all walks of life of the people, despite it is not an election of a universal nature.

For that reason, the civil society organizations do not support any amendment of the Constitution, which will undermine the observance of democracy in Cambodia. By allowing amendment to be made to meet demand of a political will or citing lack of budget, it will weaken the constitution - the supreme law.

The use of an excuse for lack of budget as a reason to delay the conduct of the election is not justifiably legitimate, because the senatorial election is non-universal, as stated in the Constitution, therefore, there will not require huge amount of budget unlike the organization of the election of members of the National Assembly. A failure to organize an election because of the lack of budget for which the Government itself does not explore ways to generate resources, then it will undermine the observance of democracy in Cambodia, that clearly illustrate that the Government is not accountable to the Constitution. It should be taken into account that in a democratic society, the election is an important element in strengthening the implementation of democracy.

Noticeably, so far a number of Senators invested their efforts to draft "Law on the Election of Members of Senate". We and other election stakeholders will encourage participatory discussions on the draft "Law on the Election of Members of Senate" by members of the National Assembly, government, civil society, donors community, political parties and lawyers, in order to explore possibilities:

a. to draft Law on the Election of Members of Senate;

b. to mobilize financial support to organize the election of members of Senate;

c. to encourage conduct of the election of members of Senate through a non-proportional system (individual system); Therefore, we insistently call upon the legislative and executive branches to take a full responsibility for the organization this election within its mandate.

For more information, please contact:
▪ THUN Saray, H/P: 016 880 509
▪ Kek GALABRU, H/P: 012 940 645
▪ KOUL Panha, H/P: 012 942 017
▪ HANG Puthea, H/P: 012 959 666
▪ MOUNG Sophal, H/P: 012 934 867
▪ YOIB Meta, H/P: 012 871 701

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