Cambodia's general election to cost over 16 mln USD

Next year's general election in Cambodia will cost more than 16 million U.S. dollars, 60 percent of which will be covered by the government while the rest from donor countries, local media said on Monday.

The National Election Committee (NEC) will need 16,758,451 U.S. dollars to run the election smoothly, or about two U.S. dollars per voter, Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea quoted NEC president Im Suosdey as saying.

The 2008 election needs an increased budget from the 2007 commune council election because of additional technical preparations such as an improved registration process and voter list clean-up, he said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sar Kheng also confirmed that the government has approved the budget and decided to contribute approximately about 60 percent of it.
The government has called on development partners to contribute the rest, said Sar Kheng, adding that the increase in the budget has resulted from an increase in the number of voters and polling stations and the inclusion of some new tasks to strengthen the quality of the election.
During the election scheduled for July 2008, both the National Assembly and the government will renew their members.

Source: Xinhua