Party Officials Vie for Slots On Radio, TV Slo

Chaos reigned at the National Election Committee Wednesday as candidates of the 25 political parties running in the July general elections picked ballots to de­cide the order in which their campaign spots will be aired on national radio and television.

A complex system of roundtable groups and individual spots left assembled politicians confused and angry; after much ex­plaining, NEC representatives convinced the candidates that the system was a fair one.

The parties will be divided into five groups, each of which will be recorded in a roundtable dis­cus­sion, NEC Deputy Sec­retary-Gen­eral Tuot Lux said  Wednesday.

Each group will dis­cuss the same 15 issues related to current affairs. The footage will be edited to show all party representatives speaking about the same issue, creating 15 themed programs. The shows will be broadcast on TVK for 15 con­secutive days during the campaign period, Tuot Lux said. “The roundtable spot is very im­portant for political parties to expose their political platforms to the voters,” Tuot Lux said.

The roundtable discussions are due to be aired from June 26 on­ward, and will be broadcast from 10 am to noon and from 5 pm to 7 pm each day, Tuot Lux said.

On Wednesday, parties also selected the order that their individual campaign slots will be broadcast. These programs will be shown on TVK beginning June 27, and continuing on odd days.

NEC President Im Sousdey wrote in a June 9 directive that all parties must submit the footage for their individual broadcasts to the NEC 10 days before the broadcast date. Each must be no more than five minutes long—any longer and the NEC will cut it, Im Sousdey warned. Broad­casts must refrain from any kind of intimidation, threats to voters or other political parties.

Political party representatives are forbidden to wear Senate, National Assembly, Royal Gov­ernment or any other insignias, and are not allowed to provoke violence among other political parties in their broadcasts, Im Sousdey said.

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