After completing his mission in Koh Kong province, H.E. Mr. Sik Bun Hok, NEC Chairman and the accompanied delegation continued to meet officials of Preah Sihanouk Election Secretariat (PSPES) at the PES office building, located in Village No. 1, Sangkat No. 3, Preah Sihanouk municipality on the afternoon of 5th September 2020.
Mr. Teng Vandy, Chief of Preah Sihanouk PES reported to the delegation, “The total population of Preah Sihanouk is 221,062. 125,728 of whom have been registered in the voter lists 2019 and there are 313 polling stations; moreover, PSPES is planning to register 7,940 new voters in 2020.
Regarding the previous work, PSPES conducted the training on “the records of the estimated number of the population having reached the eligible voting age” for 5 municipal/district administrations, 29 commune/Sangkat administrations and police stations and had a talk with H.E. Mr. Kouch Chamroeun, Governor of Preah Sihanouk Board of the Governors and requested for the construction of a warehouse and PES meeting hall that is in need.From 1st to 30th September 2020, PES has been distributing the invitations in all communes/Sangkat to invite those having the name on the official voter lists 2019 in the communes/Sangkat to be ready for the annual voter lists revision and voter registration from 1st to 19th October 2020.
“PES is always neutral in accordance with laws, regulations, procedures, and other directives of NEC that’s why the previous elections, voter lists revision and voter registration have been successfully conducted in a secured, safe, and violence-free manner. PES has collaboration and support from the provincial office administration, the authorities at all levels, political parties, organizations and associations, especially working direction has been precisely set,” added Chief of PSPES.
He added, “PES has recruited NEC civil servants and contracted officials through a wide announcement for taking an examination for getting the job and the examination makes the candidates confident and they accept the results while criticism from the public has been reduced. The voter lists have been prepared by the Department of Voter Database Management and Voter Lists in an accurate, clearly identified manner and criticism from the public is reduced. COMFREL recently conducted an audit of the voter lists with the assessment on the voter lists quality, which scored 99.7%.”
Regarding the challenges, PSPES found the discrepancy of the estimated number of population records between the commune/Sangkat administration and police administrative office and PES has faced difficulty in recruiting voter registration teams in some areas, namely Anlong Krapeu, Koh Rong, and Koh Rong Sanloem as these locations are far from the town and human resources remain limited. In addition, some political parties in the province do not have a permanent office, making it difficult to contact them.
After having listened to the report of PSPES, H.E. Mr. Sik Bun Hok, NEC Chairman told all NEC officials that local election officials shall be accountable to NEC while NEC shall be accountable to the National Assembly.
His Excellency Chairman highlighted Article 21 of the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the National Election Committee, stipulating that chief, deputy-chief and members of the Capital/Provincial Election Commission shall be accountable to the National Election Committee”. The National Election Committee shall have the right to dismiss chief, deputy-chief and members of the Capital/Provincial Election Commission in case he/she acts in contravention of the election law in force, internal rules, regulations and procedures for the elections or code of conducts for election officials. “At the same time, NEC shall be accountable to the National Assembly,” added His Excellency.
