PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 70,000 security personnel will be deployed at all 22,967 polling stations during Cambodia's general election, a National Election Committee (NEC) member said Tuesday.
"On the election day, three uniformed security agents will protect at each polling station," NEC member Hel Sarath said during a press conference here.
"The security agents are obliged to prevent any disruption, revolt, intimidation, and threat, or any possible incidents, and to ban anyone from bringing weapons, explosives, and dangerous objects to the polling stations," he said.
At the event, NEC officials also introduced indelible ink that will be used to apply on the finger of the voters in the upcoming poll.
NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said that the ink will leave an indelible mark on the finger for several weeks and added that this is one of the measures to prevent people from voting more than one time.
The Southeast Asian country is scheduled to hold the general election for the 125-seat parliament on July 29.
Twenty political parties will contest in the election, which will see some 8.38 million people cast their ballots, according to the NEC. The three-week election campaign began on July 7 and will end on July 27.
In the last election in 2013, eight political parties joined the race. As a result, the Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen won 68 seats against 55 seats for the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in the then-123-seat parliament.
The CNRP was dissolved by the Supreme Court in Nov. last year after its leader Kem Sokha was arrested and charged with "treason" for conspiring with a foreign power in an attempt to overthrow the government.
