The National Election Committee yesterday announced registration deadlines for political parties, candidates and election observers for this year’s upcoming commune elections.

After a closed door meeting, NEC spokesman Hang Puthea told reporters that parties and candidates will need to register with the organisation in March.

“We remind everyone to be ready, because the registration will only last from March 3 to 5. Therefore, each party needs to prepare their candidates ahead of time to be confirmed on the voting list,” he said.

Puthea added that each party needs to submit a reserve candidate for every council seat.

“If suddenly, there is an unexpected problem, like a resignation, we would need the reserve candidate,” he said.

The NEC will issue the finalised list of the parties and their candidates on March 18.According to Puthea, there are 22,148 polling stations in 1,646 communes, with 11,572 commune chief and commune council seats up for grabs.

Puthea also said the NEC began registering election observers on February 15. Cambodian observers can register until March 24, with international observers getting an extra week.

Spokesmen for the two major parties said they expect to be fully prepared for registration.

“The CPP will file the application on March 3,” said Sok Eysan, spokesman for the CPP.

“Nothing is different from the previous election,” said CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann. “We have our reserve candidates, and we are almost done with the preparation”.