On 07 April 2017, at 03:00 pm, at the National Election Committee (NEC) headquarters, H.E. Mr. Sik Bun Hok, NEC chairman, hosted a meeting with Mr. ADAM Schumacher, USAID Director of office of Democracy and Governance, to talk over the electoral management in Cambodia, focusing on supporting for NEC capacity via IFES.
After having listened to some works explained by H.E. Mr. Sik Bun Hok, NEC chairman, USAID side appreciated NEC for its well-prepared new voter lists, and supported the MOU signed between NEC and IFES. Mr. ADAM Schumacher raised that USAID had provided budget via IFES to implement 03 projects for improving the election in Cambodia including:
-Internal Capacity Building for the National Election Committee;
-Training Courses for NEC’s officials on Electoral Dispute Resolution; and
-Assisting on election information dissemination through Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and other means.
The representative of IFES who also represents USAID raised that in case NEC happened to have any requests or issues looking for USAID’s assistance, NEC could consult the matters with IFES. Meanwhile, USAID requested NEC to allocate an office to IFES for working directly with NEC at the NEC headquarters.
In response to the above USAID projects, H.E Mr. Sik Bun Hok mentioned that NEC warmly welcomed these projects and was always open to foreign electoral experts to work at NEC headquarters and those experts could meet and discuss any working matters directly with all departments.
By the end of the meeting, NEC hoped that this cooperation will enhance much more communication between NEC and USAID in order to promote the Election in Cambodia to be conducted on a free, fair and just basis and accredited by all relevant stakeholders.
