Independent audit of Cambodia's elections

More than 20,000 domestic and international observers registered to monitor the Cambodian National Assembly election.

On the morning of July 11, the National Election Committee of Cambodia (NEC) held a press conference to announce the results of an internal audit of the list of voters participating in the election of the 5th National Assembly, which will take place on July 28. The audit results demonstrate the commitment of Cambodian authorities to organize an honest, transparent and democratic election to choose a new Government to lead the country for the period 2013-2018.

The Chairman of the National Election Committee of Cambodia (second from left) announced the results of the voter list audit (Photo: VOV)

According to the internal audit results announced by the National Election Committee of Cambodia, 97% of those who registered to vote were on the list of voters for the 5th National Assembly election, only 3% of those who registered were not on the list, determined to be due to errors related to identification documents, differences between real names and names used to register to vote, or there were people under 18 years old at the time of registration on the list...

The audit was conducted by Thailand-based independent consultancy firm Asia Market and Business Solutions Research, which has been conducting the audit since 2010. The firm interviewed 2,472 people in 100 communes/wards across the country, comparing their names with the voter registration list posted by the National Election Commission.

Mr. Im Soursdey, Chairman of the National Election Committee of Cambodia, said that the audit results showed that the rate of 3% of people who claimed to have registered but were not on the voter list was much lower than the 11% of voters who were said to have registered but were not on the list.

Mr. Im Soursdey emphasized: “The audit results show that some figures of the Election Commission are lower than those of the audit, some are half as many, some are more. The statistics and finding of voters' names must be done meticulously and in detail to get accurate results. Therefore, I would like to confirm that the National Election Commission does not exaggerate the figures. These are figures done by an independent auditing company, not by the Commission.”

The National Election Committee of Cambodia also assessed that the preparations for the 5th National Assembly election are proceeding smoothly. After 2 weeks of officially launching the election campaign from June 27, the National Election Committee has received about 150 complaints from political parties, and has processed more than half of these complaints. It is estimated that about 20,000 domestic observers and 41 international monitors are participating in election monitoring.

Domestic observers mostly come from 25 domestic associations and government organizations, while international observers come from nine international institutes and foreign embassies.

According to Mr. Tep Nytha, Secretary General of the National Election Committee of Cambodia, the deadline to register as election observers in Cambodia will end on July 18 for domestic observers and July 25 for international observers.

The election campaign will end on July 27. The National Election Committee of Cambodia also said that after 2 weeks of campaigning in this country, everything went smoothly and there was no violence in Cambodia.

According to analysts, Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling People's Party is likely to win the upcoming election./.

According to VOV - DT