Cambodia Switches Off SMS During Elections
In a surprise move, Cambodia's National Election Committee ordered the shut-down of SMS facilities on the country's mobile phone networks over the weekend during the run up to yesterday's national elections. The Committee claimed that the move was to minimize political violence, although this was disputed by election monitors and human rights groups. Hundreds of Cambodians were killed in the months leading up to the national elections in 1998 and 2003.
Hampering the announcement was the fact that the Committee gave just a few hours notice to the phone operators to implement the ban. Ironically, most people were notified of the ban - by SMS.
"Most people are using cell phones which can receive campaign messages from political parties. On these two days, the environment must be quiet, according to the law," the National Election Committee said in a statement.
Around 14,000 foreigners and Cambodians are expected to be deployed around the country to monitor the vote.
"It is unreasonable to ban SMS during the election. I've never heard of this before," said Koul Panha of the election watchdog Comfrel, adding that "SMS is not related to elections,"
The party of the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen - the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is expected to win the election with an increased majority. Preliminary results were due early this morning, with the official result announced later this month.
The Mobile World subscriber database reports that Cambodia has around 1.6 million mobile phone customers - representing a population penetration level of just over 11%."
Posted to the site on 2nd April 2007
