The returning officers should be supported at constituency level by two deputy returning officers during periods of elections. Consideration should be made to strengthening the role and increasing the resources available for the district electoral clerks. Furthermore, provisions should be made for the pool of temporary polling staff including presiding officers be drawn from a wider group of candidates and appointed after public advertisement of these posts.

An adequate and reliable results system should be designed to ensure the integrity and reliability in the collection, aggregation and publication of results. Key procedures should be reviewed and suitable measures put in place to ensure the accuracy and security of results as they are collected from polling stations.

More training conducted well in advance of election day should be planned by the Electoral Commission. A permanent register of polling officials should be maintained with regular training sessions conducted throughout the country. This training should include polling officials, party agents, observers and security forces. It should also clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in respect to the election process.

The mandate of the members of CNE should be extended for more than five years so that experience in managing electoral processes is gained and lessons learnt pass from one process to another.

CNE should have clear responsibility for the work of all election officials and the duty to refer to the public prosecution office possible malpractices committed during election operations.

Essential - It would be recommendable to separate the TSE’s administrative and judicial functions.
Addressed to - Legislative Assembly.
Possible Improvements Suggested - The separation of the TSE’s administrative and judicial functions would enable greater efficiency in the organisation of electoral processes that could be under the responsibility of a professionalised and clearly executive directorate within the TSE and under the supervision of the TSE Magistrates. This would allow the magistrates to focus on taking judicial decisions, even against the TSE’s own administrative measures, as well as functions pertaining to the Court’s institutional representation. This would be, naturally more effective, within a TSE free from party interference.

Essential - If the nation-wide implementation of the residential-vote were to be delayed, it would be recommendable that all free transportation of voters towards Polling Centres on Election Day be organised exclusively by the TSE.
Addressed to - TSE.
Possible Improvements Suggested - Political party organised transportation of voters towards Polling Centres creates conditions that are propitious to the inducement of voters during Election Day.

Desirable - If the residential vote were to be extended nation-wide, it would be desirable that JEDs and JEMs begin to operate earlier, with respect to Election Day, than in these previous elections.
Addressed to - Legislative Assembly and TSE.

The BEC should undergo a review of its activities during the 2008 elections with a particular view to maintaining/increasing confidence in its activities. It should review the structure of its organization in order to strengthen and develop the capacity of its middle management and its secretariat. Consideration should be given to developing the field office structure of the BEC, so that permanent staff fulfil the lead role for elections, rather than local civil administration staff. A dedicated cadre of BEC staff falling under the responsibility of the Election Commission could be envisaged. In due course, appointment of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Offices from among the senior ranks of such a cadre should be considered.

In view of the total dysfunction of the postal ballot, the BEC is advised to remove it as a polling option for security agents, displaced electoral personnel, polling staff and persons in legal detention. The postal ballot should be replaced by other different voting options: the BEC is advised to facilitate the voting of all the Security agents by a special voting day for the security forces at least ten days prior to the scheduled Election Day; for polling staff the BEC is advised to facilitate the use of an additional or supplementary voter list in each PC/PB that would include all the electoral/polling staff present at the PC/PB so as to permit them to vote; for prisoners the BEC is advised toconsider holding elections inside the 67 prisons of the country by designating all prisons as ‘special polling centres’ for the elections.

The Voter List should be organised in alphabetical order at the PCs and PBs so as to facilitate the information to voters for them to know in which PB they should vote. A second copy of the VL should be available at the PC for voters to check by themselves or with the help of some BEC official which is their PB.

BEC regulations should stipulate counting the voters’ signatures on the ballot paper counterfoils or counting the names ticked in the voter list and reconciling the resulting total with the number of ballot papers in the ballot boxes.

The government of Cambodia must take credible steps to ensure that the NEC operates as a fully independent institution at all levels in order to enhance its credibility and acceptance among the electorate. Members of the NEC should be approved by a consensus among all political parties represented in the National Assembly. In particular the NEC chairperson should be a person acceptable to all political parties represented in the National Assembly. The limitation of the term in office of the chairperson and members of the NEC should be considered.

The Village Chiefs should not be allowed to take a major part in the distribution of VINs. The NEC should find an alternative method of distribution that can take place with the presence of party agents and CEC members.

The tasks and responsibilities of the lower levels of the electoral administration, for example the role of CECs in consolidating the election results from the PS and their role in the Complaints and Appeals process, should be more clearly defined in the LEMNA rather than only in the NEC Regulations and Procedures.

The criteria for the appointment of the PECs and the CECs should be reconsidered. The appointment of experienced persons is justified, but without jeopardising the performance of the election administration, the employment of qualified persons without prior election experience should be considered.

The NEC should issue further guidelines to ensure the implementation of the reconciliation of ballot papers by enforcement of the existing law and procedures.

Essential - Strengthen the impartiality of the CNE.
Addressed to - Gov.
Possible Improvements Suggested - Nominate at least two new members from opposition parties.
Timeline - Next six months.

Essential - Strengthen the structure of the CNE directorates to ensure more effective decision making and communication.
Addressed to - CNE.
Possible Improvements Suggested:
- Conduct more training for GMEs and CPEs.
- Give GMEs more responsibility for checking polling station results after the election and allow CPEs to tabulate provincial results in accordance with the law.
- Creation of an overall management post to facilitate communication and information sharing.
- Re-locate logistics section under the directorate of Organization (DOETTI).
- Devolve more decision making powers to the directorates.
- Recruit of new professional staff to fill identified gaps in the administration structure structure of the CNE directorates to ensure more effective decision making and communication.
Timeline - Over next year.

Desirable - CPE and GMEs in Luanda to be strengthened to enable them to cope with the large number of Mesas de Voto they manage.
Addressed to - CNE.
Possible Improvements Suggested:
- Conduct more training for GMEs and CPEs.
- Give GMEs more responsibility for checking polling station results after the election and allow CPEs to tabulate provincial results in accordance with the law.
- Creation of an overall management post to facilitate communication and information sharing.
- Re-locate logistics section under the directorate of Organization (DOETTI)
- Devolve more decision making powers to the directorates.
- Recruit of new professional staff to fill identified gaps in the administration structure.
Timeline - Over next year.

Essential - Improve the transparency of the CNEs operations and decisions, especially in allowing party agents and observers in to the National Counting centre to monitor the tabulation of the results and publishing the results desegregated by polling station.
Addressed to - CNE.
Possible Improvements Suggested:
- Make CNE formal decision making sessions open to domestic and international observers as well as to party agents.
- Information on decisions should be permanently available on the web site and posted more rapidly.
- Posting the election results by polling station on the CNE web site to facilitate verification by political contestants.
- Make space available for party agents (mandatários) to be present and able to monitor all aspects of post election handling of materials and results at GMEs, CPEs and most importantly at he national counting centre (Centro de Escrutinio) to ensure full confidence in the results.
- The accreditation process for observers and party agents (delegados das listas) should be improved to ensure equal and timely treatment.
Timeline - Over next year.

The international community should consider providing study visits for ECB staff on particular technical issues of interest (e.g. campaign finance, voter registration, voter education, comparative electoral systems, boundary delimitation, etc).

The EDSB should make all decisions on complaints accessible to the public, for instance through the Internet.

The ECB should expand and improve its website so that it has the capacity to make all notifications, announcements and decisions available to the public. The website acts as a key instrument for ensuring transparency of the ECB.

The ECB should ensure that Returning Officers are adequately resourced, including convenient access to high-speed Internet facilities where possible.