Over 16,000 Observers Approved for Elections

 Cambodia Daily | 12 November 2016

The National Election Commit­tee announced on Friday that it has approved more than 16,000 observ­ers from nine political parties and 13 NGOs to monitor ongoing voter registrations, with the figure expect­ed to rise further by next year’s com­mune elections.

A three-month voter registration period has been underway in 1,633 communes since September 1—and is scheduled to end on November 27—in an at­tempt to build a clean voter list for upcoming elections following widespread irregularities in 2013.

Ac­cording to the announcement, the opposition CNRP has the highest number of observers, at 6,813, while the ruling CPP has 4,579.

Funcin­pec and the Khmer National Unit­ed Party, a splinter royalist party, also registered 935 and 1,033 monitors, respectively.

The election com­mittee’s spokesman, Hang Puthea, said the observers would need to re-register for monitoring during polling and vote-counting days.

Among NGOs, the Committee for Free and Fair Elections has registered the most observers, at 1,024, while the Union of Youth Federa­tions of Cambodia—headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son Hun Many—has the second-most, with 605.