NEC officials check ballots to verify the preliminary results on June 13. NEC
The inspection and verification of the June 5 commune council election results – received by the National Election Committee (NEC) from the municipal and provincial electoral commissions on June 13-14 – is now complete with no major abnormalities.
NEC spokesman Hang Puthea told The Post on June 15 that after two days of processing, inspecting and verifying the results, NEC did not find any irregularities involved with the figures, votes or votes plus seats that were summed up by the electoral commissions.
“Overall, the results, which were verified by people locally and then against computer databases, are all valid,” he said.
Puthea said NEC was ready to announce the official results and the distribution of seats on June 27. However, he added that the announcement would be after the verification team has submitted its report to the NEC’s nine committee members for review and approval.
According to Puthea, the inspection and verification of the results was observed by representatives of the 17 political parties contesting the elections, representatives of civil society organisations and journalists.
Chhoem Bunna, deputy director of the consolidation department of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) Central Committee, told The Post on June 15 that the inspection and verification of the results sent from the capital and provinces was unchanged from previous years and there were some abnormal, invalid or damaged ballots, but not many.
“The NEC’s verification is to confirm its transparency and accuracy by issuing notices and invitations to all relevant parties to participate in the inspection,” he said.
Chan Daravuth, representative of the Cambodian Democratic Students Intellectual Federation, said NEC organised the inspection and verification in a transparent manner, and that the ballots and data at NEC and from the capital and provinces matched.
“NEC is not closed. It is an open process. And the figures from the different offices are all the same,” he said.
Preliminary results show that the CPP received an overwhelming majority of votes in the 5th-mandate commune elections, followed by the Candlelight Party.
