The National Election Committee (NEC) has announced the recruitment of 8,342 short-term contract officials to work for the commune electoral commissions during the nation’s seventh parliamentary election scheduled for this coming July.

According to the NEC’s April 3 notice signed by chairman Prach Chan, the available positions include chiefs of general operations and finance, deputy chiefs, administrators, legal services department staff, dispute mediators and security officers, information technology workers and public relations officials.

NEC spokesman Som Sorida confirmed on April 3 that NEC plans to recruit more than 8,000 people to serve in the 1,652 communes across the country during the July 23 election.

He said the hiring will take place throughout April and the recruitment would be done in line with the NEC’s structure, which has four levels: NEC national level, capital-provincial electoral commissions, commune electoral commissions, as well as polling station and ballot counting commission.

The commune electoral commissions have the role and duty of organising and managing the activities at polling sites and resolving complaints as they arise during the election process, as well as counting ballots cast in their commune.

“During this election, the commissions’ key duties will be to monitor and tally the election results. I would like to emphasise that the modernisation of this election means that the commune electoral commission staff this year will be the first to do this work using technology to facilitate the process,” he said.