Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, took questions from "Hello VOA" callers Thursday morning to discuss the challenges election officials and observers face in thousands of polling sites nationwide.

Callers from the US and Cambodia said they were concerned about the fairness of Cambodia's impending elections, where leaders from 1,621 communes will be chosen.

Nearly two weeks of campaigning from 12 different parties nationwide had seen a number of irregularities, Hang Puthea said, and most of those had not been solved to the satisfaction of all parties.

Hang Puthea reminded listeners that the voting was done in secret, so people should mark their ballots without fear of retaliation.