The National Election Committee will today consider removing about 100 of the roughly 111,000 total candidates vying for public office in the upcoming nation-wide commune elections scheduled for June 3.

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NEC secretary-general Tep Nytha said yesterday the political candidates up for removal had either been listed twice or were younger than  25, which was inconsistent with the Law on Commune Elections.

“The NEC will convene the meeting to ensure the deleting of the names of candidates from the parties’ list of candidates is in accordance with the Law [on Commune Elections],” he said.

The secretary-general also explained that the NEC planned to spend close to US$20 million managing the election, which will take place at 18,107 polling stations across the country.

Roughly nine million voters are expected to cast their ballots for candidates from 10 political parties.

The Human Rights Party reacted yesterday to the NEC’s announcement and proposed candidate list, alleging it was being unfairly targeted by the NEC’s removal of certain candidates and threatening to file a complaint.

The party said it had candidates standing in 1,070 communes, but the NEC’s proposed list showed that it was running candidates in only 1,029 communes.

“We demand that the NEC revise the number of  communes in which the HRP has registered a candidate,” HRP spokesman Pol Ham said.

“If not, we will file a complaint against the NEC.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at [email protected]