Seventeen political party representatives walked up to a table at the National Election Committee on Friday, dipped their finger in a bottle of ink and waited for 15-odd minutes.
After the ink dried, they tried rubbing off the ink — and all 17 fingers remained stained.
The NEC on Friday announced 52,000 bottles of ink as indelible and fit to be used for the June 5 commune election. The ink is imported from an Indian company and is expected to remain on a voter’s finger for at least the duration of the balloting.
NEC member Hal Sarath said the ink was used by 30 other countries and was proven indelible.
“This dark ink has been supplied to the NEC for every election and has guaranteed quality,” Sarath said.
The ink will be used in all polling stations across the country to ensure no voter fraud. Poll monitors said in 2013 that the ink could be easily washed off using bleach or lime juice, a claim rejected by the then-election committee.
Kang Marady, secretary of the Candlelight Party’s election team, said the ink test should be performed in all commune offices to ensure public confidence.
Sam Kuntheamy, who heads election monitoring group Nicfec, said the ink test was reliable and there was no doubt about its indelibility.
“No, if they test it and it looks high quality, we can trust it, according to the test,” he said.
(Hean Rangsey/VOD)