A total of 464 candidates from four political parties have applied to register for the upcoming Senate Election for the fifth term, the National Election Committee (NEC) has said.

According to the NEC, in the Senate Election slated for February 25, of the total 464 candidates, 116, including 22 women, are from the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP); 116 from Khmer Will Party (23 women); 116 from National Power Party (17 women) while Funcinpec is fielding 116 candidates, including seven women.

Of the 17 political parties that contested the Fifth Mandate Commune Election in 2022, only the CPP, Khmer Will Party (KWP) and the Funcinpec contested in the Senate election that followed.
The National Power Party (NPP) has just been founded in July.

Dim Sovannarom, a member of the NEC, stated that in accordance with the Law on the Amendment of the Election Law, new Article 13 of the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Election of Senators and Article 23 of the New Law on the Amendment of the Election Law, those who wish to stand as a candidate for the Senate Election must be a Cambodian citizen by birth, over the age of 40, registered on the voter list, reside in Cambodia and be nominated by a registered political party.

He added that the political parties were allowed 15 days – from November 27 to December 11 – for the registration of their list of candidates. The election campaign is allowed from February 10 to 23, 2024.

The NEC member said that the vote counting and announcement of the preliminary results of the Senate Election will take place on February 25 between 7am and 3pm.

He added that the counting of ballots will be carried out immediately after the election at the respective polling stations.

The NEC will then announce the preliminary results of the election online, but the official results will be announced on April 2 or before the due date.

NEC spokesman Hang Puthea said that the election of senators is very important because they have the role of monitoring and overseeing all legislation from the National Assembly for the benefit of society and all Cambodian people.

“The election of senators is carried out by 117,747 commune councillors and 33 members of the National Assembly,” he said.

In late November, the NEC announced that civil servants, court officials, employees of the National Police and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and clergy are ineligible to run in the election.
Similarly, a person who has

been sentenced by a court to imprisonment for a crime or misdemeanour and has not been rehabilitated, or a person who has been convicted of disenfranchisement is also ineligible.

A person with a mental illness or a person who has been temporarily deprived of his or her right to vote, or a person whose name has been removed from the voter list by the NEC or a member of the NEC at all levels or a member of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy or Member of the Constitutional Council is also barred from contesting in the Senate Election.

The number of seats for the 5th Senate election is divided into eight constituencies for 58 seats, while the total number of seats is 62, with two each appointed by the King and National Assembly.

The Senate Election is one of the four elections in Cambodia. The other three elections are the election of the National Assembly, the election of members of the capital-provincial, city-district councils and the Commune Election.

• Tags: CPP, KWP, NEC, senate election