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Fund for Reconciliation and Development

Press Release

Cambodia Election Field Report #2                                                                  July 23, 2003

International and Domestic Observers Prepare for Cambodian Elections

With four days remaining before national parliamentary elections, thousands of official observers are deploying to Cambodias 23 provinces and 12,000 polling stations.

The vast majority of observers are Cambodians: 20,000 with the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (COMFREL) and 6,000 with the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC). These observers will be stationary, assigned to each polling station and commune counting center nationwide. Many observers, along with agents of governing and opposition political parties, will sleep in a room with the ballot boxes between election day and counting day.

While not as numerous as in past national elections, international observer groups, with over 500 members on 13 delegations, also play a significant role in ensuring the openness and accuracy of the election process. Many delegations are government-sponsored, such as a European Union team and groups from the New Zealand, Canadian, Australian,  Japanese and US Embassies.  Both the EU and US have funded long-term observers who have been in each province since the end of May. The US observers are administered by the Asia Foundation with a grant from USAID.

Other international groups are non-governmental, such as the Asian Network for Free and Fair Elections (ANFREL) and the Fund for Reconciliation and Development's International Volunteer Observers (IVO). Each of the observer teams is accredited by Cambodia's National Election Commission (NEC), on the basis of abiding by an official Code of Conduct and showing no publicly demonstrated bias in favor of any candidate or political party.

International observers will move from polling station to polling station, focusing on heavily populated and contested areas, but with the right to travel anywhere freely. Each delegation will write a group report after the election process is complete. In cases of complaints or irregularities, international observers’ reports may be compared with those of local observers and party agents. These multiple layers of accountability reduce the possibility of election fraud and will make the assessment process more transparent.

Cambodia is not yet a fully mature democracy, and election observers should not expect perfection. We should and do expect that the elections will take place according to the laws and regulations set by the NEC. The presence of neutral, unbiased observers--both Cambodians and foreigners--helps to ensure that these procedures are followed in every polling station in the country. 

Written by Andrew Wells-Dang in Phnom Penh <andrew@ffrd.org>