The Japanese government has provided more than $7 million in aid to the National Election Committee (NEC), including the cost of 11,000 ballot boxes and 40 pickup trucks, it said on Saturday.

The aid follows a memorandum of understanding signed on February 21 by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhon and Hidehisa Horinouchi, Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia.

NEC spokesman Hang Puthea told The Post that the Japanese government has also provided technical aid. ‘Japan has provided aid to NEC since the UN-commissioned national elections [in 1993], and it continues to provide aid to us. Japan has also provided a server costing $1.3 million to store data,’ he said.

Puthea also lauded China’s ongoing support for the election committee.