Cambodia’s election body has called for regular meetings with political parties, journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) in a bid to stave off suspicions of bias as two of its non-CPP aligned officials face prosecution.

National Election Committee (NEC) spokesperson Hang Puthea, the independent member of the bipartisan body, requested NEC President Sik Bun Hok meet fortnightly with the groups.

Puthea said the motivation was for the groups to discuss issues “candidly”, but one human rights consultant suggested the meetings could amount to quelling dissent. Puthea went on to say CSOs and the media should use the meetings to ask for clarity, rather than publishing bad press.

“Don’t use the language to interpret based on your feelings,” Puthea said. “I’m speaking about the delay of voter registration; I emphasise that the reasons are because the NEC has not received equipment to operate the registration. But some argue it is political, that the NEC does not want to organise the election.”

The NEC, comprising four appointees by the CPP and four from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), has been plagued by multiple delays in registering voters.

Recently, NEC Deputy Secretary-General Ny Chakrya, a former official for human rights group Adhoc, was