PHNOM PENH: Saturday 4th May one day before the Commune/Sangkat elections the National Election committee (NEC) held a briefing at the Hyatt hotel in Phnom Penh on the background of the elections, 4 steps of organizing elections, commune elections for the 5th mandate electoral reforms and code of conduct .
Mr Sovannarom Dim NEC member and chief of quick reaction information team of the NEC Gave a brief presentation on the back ground of the elections, the four steps of organizing elections, commune 5th mandate elections, electoral reforms and code of conduct for the observers.
Mr. Sovannarom mentioned the real heart of democracy refers to free, fair and just election. He went on to say a free and fair just election shall consist of 10 important elements, one of which implies that the election management bodies (EMB) shall have precise regulations.
“The EMB refers to the National Election Committee (NEC) that the election conducted by the NEC remains central in the democracy and enables citizens to enjoy their rights as stated in the universal declaration on Human Rights”
Mr. Sovannarom also gave brief background of NEC establishment and and commune elections. The NEC was established by the law on the election of members of the National Assembly in 1997.
In 2014, the NEC become an institution enshrined in Chapter 15 new (two) of the constitution. The NEC has the right to organize the elections thought out the Kingdom. Currently the NEC has nine standing members.
So far the NEC has organized four elections of the commune/Sangkat councils, with the first in 2002. In the first commune/Sangkat elections in 2002 a total of 8 political parties was in the running and 1,621 communes and 5,190,307 registered voters. These elections there are 17 political parties, 1,652 commune and 9.2 million registered voters.
He mentioned with the previous elections citizens had to register with the commune councils and clerks to process manually. Now it is easier to register you can register via voter registration team (VTR) and was run by a computer system.
The NEC sent out 20 informative SMs to mobiles to notify citizens to take part in the voter revision and voter registration, as well as other forms of information.
He also mentions the current electoral process has moved ahead by embracing online registration of political parties and list of candidates in addition to manual one. This has made it easier for citizens and the NEC to access their details.
The NEC allows political parties that properly register their candidate list of political parties running this year’s elections to conduct election campaign in order to let their voters know their policies and political platforms for the elections.
To address all challengers related to monitoring, verifying and consolidating election results manually, in course will be modernizing the election process.
The National Election Committee also mentioned how advanced Cambodia has now come since the first Commune/Sangkat elections, where there was a lot of trouble and unrest between the parties and citizens. Now that Cambodia has moved forward with democracy people are allowed to have their say and worry what will happen
The NEC also went to mention the four main code of conduct for observers, and anyone was welcome to be an observer, all they had to do is apply to become one.
During their briefing they mention the different means of transport the ballot box from elephants and helicopter’s.
The 5th Commune / Sangkat Council Election will be held on 5th June, with 17 political parties taking part. Total number seats of 11,622 in 1,652 Commune/Sangkat Council seats nationwide with more than 9.2 million registered voters.
