Fifth Mandate Commune/Sangkat Council Election Campaign Kicks Off

The 17 political parties registered for the fifth mandate or 2022 Commune/Sangkat Council Election began their respective electoral campaign with different activities.

According to the National Election Committee (NEC), the Commune/Sangkat Council Election campaign will take place from May 21 to June 3.

Based on the observation, on the first of the 14-day campaign, some political parties started with small rallies in their respective locations, while others conduct their campaign on social media according to their respective strategies and political agenda.

The 17 political parties include Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), Candlelight Party (CP), FUNCINPEC Party, Khmer National United Party (KNUP), Cambodia National Love Party (CNLP), Cambodian Nationality Party (CNP), Cambodian Youth Party (CYP), Cambodian Reform Party (CRP), Khmer Will Party (KWP), Kampucheaniyum Party (KP), Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP), Ekpheap Cheat Khmer Party (ECKP), Beehive Social Democratic Party (BSDP), Cambodia Indigenous People’s Democracy Party, Khmer United Party (KUP), Reaksmey Khemara Party, and Khmer Economic Development Party (KEDP).

The two-week election campaign is to end 24 hours before the election day in accordance to Article 70 of the Law on Commune/Sangkat Council Election, while the election day will be on June 5, 2022, said yesterday H.E. Em Sophath, a NEC member.

The purpose of the election campaign is to allow all registered political parties to publicise their political agenda to the voters, he added.

Recently, His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, has called on all voters to go to the polls for the Commune/Sangkat Council Election without any worries.

“The Commune/Sangkat Council Election 2022 is a confidential general election in line with multi-party democracy,” wrote the Cambodian monarch, encouraging the Cambodian people not to fear any threats, but to exercise their rights confidently and conscientiously to elect their favourite candidates or political parties.

Besides, Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen used to appeal for non-violence, both physical and verbal, during the Commune/Sangkat Council Election in June.

The Premier also urged the competent authorities at all levels to maintain neutrality for all political parties to compete in the forthcoming local election.

To ensure free and fair election, NEC has given the greenlight to 46,980 people from 16 national associations, including seven non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to act as observers in the upcoming election and a total of more than 46,915 full-fledged party agents and 31,513 reserves from 17 political parties.

According to the National Election Committee (NEC), there are a total of 86,092 candidacies, 27,813 of them are female, nominated by the 17 registered political parties to race for the 1,652 Communes/Sangkat in Cambodia.

The official voter list shows that Cambodia has in total 9,205,681 eligible voters, of them 4,904,832 are women.

The figure represents 87.94 percent of the total population aged 18 years up, who will go to vote at 23,602 designated polling stations across the country.

The previous Commune/Sangkat Council Election was held on June 4, 2017 in 22,148 polling stations across the country with the participation of 12 political parties. Some 7.04 million or 89.52 percent of the total eligible voters of 7,865,033 turned out to the polls. In that election, CPP won a landslide victory by obtaining 1,156 communes/Sangkat, while the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) got 489 communes/Sangkat, and Khmer National United Party (KNUP), a commune.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press