The Council of Ministers decided to hand over land owned by the Foreign Ministry and occupied by a senior opposition official to the National Election Committee, which said it was facing space constraints at its current headquarters.
Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen railed against Candlelight Party senior adviser Kong Korm who was living on Foreign Ministry land in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac commune. Korm says he has been living on the 0.5 hectare land since he worked for the ministry in the 1980s.
After Korm agreed to give back the land last week, Hun Sen withdrew a $1 million lawsuit filed by the ministry but got a court injunction to block the sale or lease of the land.
Council of Ministers spokesperson Phay Siphan said the council agreed to transfer the land from the Foreign Ministry to the NEC, but that official documents were still being drafted.
“The NEC does not have their own land yet. They borrow the land from the Ministry of Interior to build their current office,” he said.
The current election body headquarters is nestled right next to NagaWorld 2 casino in central Phnom Penh. The NEC has also been given around three hectares of land in Boeng Tamok, which is being filled in at a brisk pace.
Som Sorida, the deputy secretary-general of the NEC, said the body had only heard of the transfer of land through unofficial government channels and were waiting for official documentation.
“The current office is built on a narrow space. It is so difficult, especially with parking, which we do not have enough of and forces us to park at other places nearby,” he said.
“For the three hectares of land that the government gives us at Boeng Tamok is too far away from the city. Therefore, we cannot build the headquarters as it is isolated from the city and we also worry about security there,” he said.
Instead, the NEC will use the Boeng Tamok land to build a warehouse to store documents and a meeting hall.
VOD spoke to a real estate agency official and looked at online land sale listings to estimate the price of the land taken from Korm and given to the NEC.
The real estate staffer said they did not want to be named in this story but estimated the land was likely worth around $6,500 to $7,500 per square meter in Tonle Bassac, putting the 0.5 hectare land at an estimated $32 million to $37 million.
Real estate listings from popular real estate website realestate.com.kh show that land in Tonle Bassac along Norodom Boulevard sells for around $6,500 a square meter and up to $8,500 for plots closer to the Independence Monument.
