The National Election Committee (NEC) on April 13 completed "training of trainers" for NEC officials on vote count and declaration of election results in the run-up to the commune council elections scheduled for June 5.

According to the NEC's press statement, the three-day training from April 11-13 were closed in the presence of NEC secretary-general Tep Nytha.

Nytha said at the closing ceremony that to make the coming commune elections free, fair and just in accordance with the principle of multi-party democracy acceptable to all, NEC had prepared an event calendar and master plan to be accomplished according to each stage of the election process.

He said it was important to respect and follow the rules and procedures for the commune elections.

“In order for the elections to be successful, besides building good and comprehensive legal standards, it is important to train and strengthen the capacity election officials at all levels and relevant stakeholders to make them understand clearly about the law and procedures of the elections,” he said.

Nytha said that after this professional training, all trainers have understood well the process of vote count and declaration of election results.

He instructed all trainers to be ready with training equipment and material in order to provide training further to provincial election commission officials, representatives of participating political parties and observers, as well as other stakeholders as set in the above-mentioned event calendar.

NEC said they had organised necessary training to election officials and relevant stakeholders, both at national and sub-national level, ahead of each election as well as awareness raising about the election process and procedures. For the commune elections in June, they already completed the review of voter list and registration of political parties’ candidates.