Son Chhay, a member of the Candlelight Party, talks to the media after a meeting at NEC. Heng Chivoan
The National Election Committee (NEC) has finished allocating airtime to 17 political parties to publicise their political programmes in the run-up to the Commune Council Election on June 5.
The election campaign is from May 21 to June 3.
NEC deputy secretary- general Mok Dara said the participating parties can broadcast their programmes on the National Television of Cambodia (TVK) and National Radio as well as on the NEC bulletin and website based on the time slot reserved for them.
“The time slots have been fairly allocated to each political party, either on national media channels or NEC’s bulletin and website. The bulletins will also be sold on newsstands,” he mentioned.
He added that political parties which can afford to publicise their programmes on private media channels can do so, in accordance with agreements with those media.
Funcinpec spokesman Nhoeun Raden told The Post that the meeting was useful for political parties to understand the rules of the party’s programme and the electorate, which will be disseminated through social media or the NEC.
Khoeuy Sinoeun, vice president of the Cambodia National Love Party, said the NEC’s procedure for disseminating each party’s programme to voters was good as they can see and decide who they want as representatives for their commune.
Sinoeun said his party representatives attended the NEC meeting to receive instructions to develop policies for the NEC to disseminate to voters nationwide.
Meanwhile, the NEC met with a delegation from Candlelight Party, led by Son Chhay on April 11 to discuss the removal and rejection of its candidates from the list in 11 communes.
According to NEC spokesman Som Sorida, Chhay explained that there were threats against political party candidates and requested for an immediate intervention should there be any problem.
Sorida said NEC secretary-general Tep Nitha stressed that the conflict regarding the removal and rejecting the Candlelight Party candidates have been resolved based on the law and cannot be appealed.
“With regards to the alleged threat, some issues are beyond NEC’s purview. However, NEC had cooperated with the Interior Ministry to issue instructions to the local authority to facilitate the activities of political parties,” he said.
On immediate intervention, Sorida said the NEC possesses a proper structure from the national level to provincial and commune level, through which each political party can communicate and seek facilitation.
Chhay said he saw a positive sign to go further in the election after the meeting with the NEC.
“Candlelight Party officials will continue discussions with the NEC to resolve any problems they are facing in order to make the commune council election this year fair, transparent and acceptable to all stakeholders,” Chhay added.
