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.
