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After decades of conflict, Cambodia has made progress in building democratic institutions and practices, particularly with a strong and vocal civil society that emerged from the country’s UN-administered peace process in the early 1990s. However, the dominance of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s (CPP) over all aspects of governance – including a supermajority in the country’s legislature – has limited transparency of government activities, stifled dissent and opposition, and suppressed free speech and access to information. Corruption plagues the country, and in recent years collusion between large, often foreign-owned companies and the political elite has robbed people of their land and their livelihood. The judiciary suffers from political interference and a lack of independence, with ruling party leaders often serving as judges.
In this environment, there is a need to strengthen oversight and accountability, increase citizens’ political involvement and provide opportunities for political pluralism. NDI’s programs aim to increase the transparency of the Cambodian government’s decision-making process, expand public access to information and level the playing field to increase political competitiveness.
Current Activities
Constituency Dialogues
To enhance parliamentary accountability and provide an avenue for more meaningful engagement between citizens and their elected representatives, NDI, together with its local NGO partners and community volunteers, has organized multiparty constituency dialogues since 2004 with all political parties in the national assembly. Currently NDI holds 24 dialogues a year in the following provinces: Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Kandal, Kratie, Prey Veng, Siem Reap and Takeo. Similar in format to a town hall meeting, constituency dialogues bring together from 300 to 1,000 residents of a community to voice their concerns about local or national issues, request action or resolution to problems, and question members of the national assembly directly. Lawmakers use the opportunity to update citizens on the activities of the legislature and government and provide other relevant information. The dialogues are broadcast over radio to expand their impact.
The dialogues help members of parliament get to know their constituents and the issues they care about, while getting the chance to educate citizens on the roles and responsibilities of the national assembly and its members. Another critical goal of the program is to increase citizens’ understanding of their political options, and the CDs provide a unique opportunity for policy debate, highlighting the distinctions between legislators, political parties and their approaches to public policy. Five political parties participate in the program: the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, the Human Rights Party (HRP) and the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP).
Following each CD, NDI records the issues raised and the actions proposed by each MNA. NDI regularly communicates with the parliamentarians to follow their progress in fulfilling their pledges made during the CDs. At the same time, NDI’s provincial partner organizations visit the villages involved to investigate any changes that may have taken place there as a result of the CDs. All initiatives and results are recorded and then reported back to the communities, and at are published in a widely disseminated report at the end of the year (currently available for 2009 and 2010). This tracking is essential to encouraging accountability and allowing citizens to judge performance.
NDI uses focus groups to help measure the impact of the CD program on Cambodians’ knowledge of and attitudes toward the national assembly and its members, and assesses citizens’ perception of their political options and of multiparty democracy. The focus groups also gather information on problem solving in the community and communication and interaction between citizens and their representatives. The same questions are asked to the same group of people both before and after the CD in an attempt to capture any changes. NDI has also initiated a pilot impact evaluation to assess the efficacy of the CD program.
Political Parties
Starting in 2012, NDI will host multiparty dialogues on public policy to be broadcast on television and radio. The dialogues will be the first of their kind in Cambodia and provide space for alternative viewpoints to be shared. Through the media, the public will hear the varying positions of political parties, enabling them to compare policies that impact their lives and inform their future electoral choices. Parties will be encouraged to present concrete, solution-based policies, and Cambodians will be able to hold them accountable to these positions. In an environment in which the playing field for political competition is unbalanced and there is a lack of tolerance for opposing political views, the program aims to provide space for meaningful, constructive debate on policies affecting the nation.
Election Programming
As the 2012 commune council and 2013 National Assembly elections approach, NDI will conduct a series of candidate debates throughout the country, approximately 20 debates during the commune council election campaign period and 20 debates during the national assembly campaign, with the latter televised nationally. To promote the accuracy of the voter registration list and help safeguard the rights of Cambodian voters, NDI will work with the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC) and the Center for Advanced Study (CAS) to conduct voter registration audits ahead of both elections. For the 2013 elections, NDI also plans to support NICFEC in conducting a sample-based observation. This monitoring technique involves drawing a representative sample of polling stations and providing statistically meaningful information on the conduct of voting and counting. Both the voter registration audits and the sample-based observation will provide Cambodians with accurate information from which to assess the fairness and credibility of their elections.
Past Activities
Since 1992, NDI has aided democratic activists in Cambodia through work with civic groups, political parties and the national assembly. The Institute has supported community-level activities led by local organizations, the adoption of political party codes of conduct, the development of women's caucus and youth wings in parties, and initiatives to reform the electoral process.
Following a violent change in government in 1997, NDI monitored the political environment and focused international attention on the need for fundamental changes in Cambodia’s political climate to allow competitive elections. In 1998, NDI collaborated with the International Republican Institute to organize a 60-member observation team to monitor the national elections. NDI worked with domestic election monitoring groups – the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) and NICFEC – to promote reforms in electoral legislation. In the lead-up to the 2002 commune council elections, NDI again provided technical assistance to Cambodian election monitoring organizations and organized Cambodia’s first candidate debates.
For the 2003 national assembly elections, NDI organized the first television program focused on a discussion of electoral and public policy issues, conducted training for political parties on campaigning, organized multiparty candidate debates and negotiated a code of conduct for parties during the campaign period. NDI also supported COMFREL and NICFEC’s deployment of long-term domestic election observers to monitor the voter registration process – a first in Cambodia. Following the elections, NDI supported COMFREL and NICFEC’s Parliament Watch initiative, which monitored legislative developments and the performance of parliamentarians at the provincial and district levels.
For the 2007 commune council and 2008 national assembly elections, NDI’s initiatives helped to strengthen accountability systems for the elections, provided a more level-playing field for political parties and increased access to election and candidate information. NDI conducted a voter registration audit of the voters’ list with NICFEC, COMFREL and CAS, finding inaccuracies and erroneous deletions. NDI also conducted 31 commune council candidate debates in 10 provinces and 22 televised national assembly candidate debates, involving 93 candidates from all 11 political parties. The Institute implemented a party poll agent training program for the political parties, distributing training kits, election observation manuals and checklists. Further election safeguards were provided by over 5,000 independent election observers deployed by NDI’s domestic election monitoring partners, COMFREL and NICFEC.
NDI worked with political party trainers to provide instruction to women candidates on the commune electoral law, public speaking, leadership, message development and campaign organizing skills. In addition, NDI held a series of women’s forums throughout the county to mark International Women’s Day. The forums promoted women's political participation and provided women leaders with a chance to speak in public, many for the first time. Political parties nominated women leaders, in most cases commune council candidates, to speak at the forums.
Following the 2008 elections, NDI convened a technical working group of Cambodian civil society leaders to identify electoral reform recommendations based on evaluation reports and assistance programs for previous elections. In 2009, NDI held an electoral reform workshop for the working group to present its recommendations and build consensus among civil society actors and government officials on the implementation of these reforms. Two detailed reports have emerged from these activities: a report on the findings of the group’s comprehensive, year-long consultations; and a report on the results of the workshop. Both documents were distributed to relevant government agencies, international aid organizations and Cambodian civil society organizations.
Funding
NDI’s programs in Cambodia are funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Contact Information
For more information about these programs, use our contact form or contact:
Phnom Penh
Laura Thornton, Resident Director
+855 23 990 072
Washington, D.C.
Marjan Ehsassi, Program Manager
(202) 728-5405
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