Hope you don't need to send an urgent text message

Cambodia is having commune elections on 1st of April. No violence is really expected but the political wrangling is intense, as it is everywhere before an election. The Cambodian National Election Committee has taken the somewhat radical step of banning all text messages for over 36 hours before the election to eliminate political messages that may influence voters.

... in Cambodia the information technology is modern now and most of 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... in order to prevent the use of SMS for the election campaign ... block SMS through cell-phone from March 31st, 2007 to April 1st, 2007 at 3.00pm.

I understand the need to have an election-free zone before polling. Even at home the party political broadcasts do not go out the day before or the day of the election. I do think, though, that banning an entire country from texting is a tad extreme. Oh well at least it's better than imposing a curfew. Don't forget to buy credit for your calls.