News

With less than two months before voter registration is due to start for the upcoming commune elections, the delivery of vital computer equipment has reportedly been delayed by two weeks due to an import duty bungle, while only a fraction of the required workers have ...

Voters in next year’s elections will now have to make their choices under the watchful eye of the army after the government issued a decree yesterday establishing permanent military forces at national and sub-national election sites between 2016 and 2019. ... ...

The National Election Committee yesterday released a monthly meeting schedule with the European and Japanese embassies in a bid to ensure the voter-registration process, due to begin September 1, will go smoothly. ...  ...

Japan will continue funding the National Election Committee (NEC) ahead of the upcoming commune and national elections, despite growing international concern over Cambodia’s deteriorating political climate. ... ...

Recruitment of 741 short-term contract staff to help prepare for next year’s commune elections will begin on Wednesday, according to the National Election Committee’s spokesman. ... ...

National Election Committee (NEC) spokesman Hang Puthea yesterday promised the body would release electoral lists for vetting after it finished registering voters, but conceded the process faced a tight deadline. ... ...

After multiple delays, the National Election Committee yesterday released its schedule for voter registration, giving itself three months to register the close to 9.6 million eligible voters across the country. ...  ...

An NGO has filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against senior National Election Committee members for “colluding to commit corruption inside an independent institution”, relating to a transfer of the body’s employees from independent contractors to government officials. ... ...

Next year’s commune council elections will be held on June 4, according to a decision signed on Tuesday by Prime Minister Hun Sen, marking the first nationwide ballot since the 2013 election that led to the reform of the National Election Committee (NEC). ... ...

Cambodia’s election body has called for regular meetings with political parties, journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) in a bid to stave off suspicions of bias as two of its non-CPP aligned officials face prosecution. ... ...

National Election Committee spokesman Hang Puthea yesterday maintained that the country remains on track to hold commune elections in June 2017 despite the body again postponing the registration of voters in a new digital system because necessary equipment had not yet been acquired. ...  ...

The ongoing presidential election campaign in the United States may be one of the more unseemly the country has seen, but observers and politicians in Cambodia say their country still has a lot to learn from the American democratic process. ... ...

As the National Election Committee seeks to reform itself and the election process, election observers say it is failing at the provincial and local level. Critics say hundreds of NEC directors and deputies across the country could potentially fail to implement the policies of the ...

The European Union pledged €10 million in preparation of the upcoming 2017 and 2018 elections yesterday, which the National Election Committee (NEC) hopes to add to in a new budget they will be submitting to the government, according to NEC officials. ... ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) on Saturday wrapped up its 10-day call for applications for top administrative positions with 124 forms submitted, the agency said in a statement, with one secretary- general and four deputies set to be selected. ... ...

More than 100 people have expressed interest in taking positions with the National Election Committee (NEC) since applications were made available to the public five days ago, but complicated identity and background checks have prevented anyone from actually applying, the NEC’s spokesman said on Monday. ...

The nearly year-old bipartisan National Election Committee (NEC) will later this week begin accepting applications for the position of secretary-general, its top administrative role, with the man currently in the job, Tep Nytha, saying on Sunday that he would be applying. ... ...

Halfway into a pilot project testing a computerized voter registration system, the National Election Committee (NEC) has identified a lack of electricity and Internet access in the countryside along with inaccurate voter documentation as its main challenges. ... ...

Despite a massive 300 percent increase in its budget next year to prepare for looming elections, the National Election Committee (NEC) says it has barely half the money it needs to do its job and is looking for overseas aid for resources to help. ... ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy have clashed over the issue of Cambodians living overseas being able to vote in elections. ... ...

A sub-decree regulating the internal functioning of the new National Election Committee was signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday, paving the way for the election body to select new administrative officials and begin organizing itself for elections scheduled for 2017 and 2018. ... ...

The National Election Committee will submit draft sub-decrees to the government this week that would establish three new departments within the commission to manage public relations, voter lists and procurement. ... ...

The new computerized registry of voters for the next election will catalog citizens’ real names, reduce fraud, and get rid of the double-name glitches that plagued the last election cycle, says NEC spokesman Hang Puthea. ... ...

Cambodia’s next elections for commune officials will take place in February 2017, Interior Minister Sar Kheng has confirmed. ... ...