Seven members and three alternates were elected Saturday to the NGO coordinating committee for next February’s commune elections, with two women gaining the most votes.
Pok Nanda, executive director of the Women Prosperity Organization, received 30 out of 64 votes and was appointed chairwoman. Ing Youkkhorn of the Rural Society Development Association received 28 votes while Yung Kim Eng of the Khmer Youth Association received 27.
All three top vote-getters belong to NGOs associated with leading election monitoring groups the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Coffel) and the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel). Those two groups had originally opposed the establishment of the coordinating committee, whose responsibilities include monitoring the entire election process.
Last week, the monitors had pointed out the inexperience of the original group of 11 nominees and convinced the National Election Committee to seek more candidates. Pok Nanda, Uk Vandeth and the three alternates were not on the original list of 11 candidates.
“I congratulate this election,” said Coffel executive director Sek Sophal. “It reflects free and fair voting.”
NEC deputy chairman Kassie Neou called the new committee “a great team” made up of professional people. “It is great we have women on this committee while the world is promoting women,” he added.
Kassie Neou suggested the committee attempt to set up a parallel vote counting system to verify the NEC numbers. Such a system would require two observers at 12,400 polling stations.
The 1998 national election was plagued by accusations of vote rigging, which forced a delay in the formation of a government until a coalition deal was established between the ruling CPP and Funcinpec parties.
Pok Nanda said she is “so pleased to be elected. With my new job, I hope we can fulfill our duty to expand the existing network and work to lobby donors to help us. I’ll do all my best to make election monitoring work.”
Those elected also include:
• Prak Vansen, 41, advisor for Cambodian Institute for Development and Human Rights. (23)
• Iv Borin, 29, executive director of Cambodian Transparency Center. (22)
• Uk Vandeth, 46, deputy director, Cambodian Defenders Project. (21)
• Sam Kamsan, 26, director of Development Association for Salvaging the Poor Families. (21)
Alternates include:
•Men Rithiya, program chief for Cambodian Institute for Human Rights.
•Yith Savuoch, director of Cambodian Development and Rehabilitation Organization.
• Nei Lynnirath, administrative director of Khmer Youth Development Organization.
