Seven parties have registered to take part in the 3rd Mandate Council Elections after the March 7-11 registration period concluded on Monday, the NEC has announced.

NEC spokesman Hang Puthea told The Post on Monday that the seven parties registered to participate are the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the Cambodian Youth Party, the Khmer Will Party (KWP), Funcinpec, the Khmer National United Party, the Cambodian Nationality Party and the Khmer Republican Party.

“The number of candidates is still being counted, so I don’t have a clear figure as yet,” Puthea said.

A total of 228 polling stations will open their doors for the upcoming municipal, provincial, town, district and commune council elections, with 11,572 commune and sangkat councillors nationwide able to vote.

Puthea said the NEC will be available to hear complaints regarding the election process from all parties until April 1.

KWP president Kong Monika said although his party has no councillors able to vote in the polls, it had registered to join in as it sees the elections as an opportunity to spread its message. It has placed candidates in 10 cities and provinces.

“I see joining [in this year’s council elections] as an opportunity to make the party more comprehensively known to people, and I that expect voters from both the ruling party and the dissolved opposition party will vote for mine in a multi-party democracy to promote sub-national development reforms,” he said.

CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said that the municipal-province and city-district council elections differed from national and commune elections in that voters were commune council members and not citizens. He said all CPP councillors would vote along party lines.

“Normally, members of a party in council elections must vote for that party and cannot vote for another,” Eysan said.