The European Union (EU) will send a number of observers to assist the Cambodian communal election that will take place this year on June 4.
Mr. Hang Puthea, spokesman for the National Election Committee (NEC), told reporters on Wednesday that the EU will soon send a number of observers to assist the upcoming communal election.
He added that the EU's decision was made after a meeting with Mr. Sik Bun Hok, NEC's President, Mr. George Edgar, EU Ambassador to Cambodia, and Mr. Hidehisa HORINOUCHI, Ambassador of Japan to Cambodia, happening on February 24.
However, Mr. Puthea pointed out that the EU did not affirm the number of the observers yet, but it won't be many. Regarding Japan which is one of the biggest countries in term of financial aid for NEC, Mr. Puthea said that the government of Japan had no plan to send observer for the election, although this country has sent many experts to help building NEC's capacity since its inception.
According to Mr. Puthea, as of today, the NEC is working to register candidates from different political parties for this upcoming communal election.
As reported by the NEC, more than 7.8 million voters were registered, and 22,148 polling stations will be set up nationwide.
There are 1,646 communes in the kingdom. Each commune council comprises five to 11 members depending on demography and geography. Members of the council are elected through a proportional system. All political parties can compete with each other by presenting a list of candidates at least twice the number of seats in each commune, but no independent candidates are allowed.
The first commune elections were held in February 2002. The third and last commune elections took place on June 3, 2012.
In 2012, there were 9,203,493 eligible voters among a population of 14.2 million. Ten political parties contested 11,459 seats. The 2012 election was organized by the old NEC which was dominated by members of the ruling party.
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