Drive to register wraps for NEC
AN OFFICIAL from the National Election Committee said yesterday the body was pleased to have registered more than 80 percent of Cambodia’s estimated 9.6 million eligible voters over the past three months, blaming overzealous estimates of available eligible voters, deaths and the weather for coming up short.
The three-month registration window ended at midnight last night – extended past the 5:30pm deadline to allow for stragglers – with enrolments creeping toward 7.9 million, meaning 1.7 million potential voters as initially estimated by the NEC will not be able to participate in upcoming commune elections.
The figure is lower than the 9.6 million people who registered for the 2013 national election – which ultimately saw a turnout of 6.6 million – and the 9.2 million who registered for the 2012 commune council elections – which saw a turnout of 6 million people. Yet both of those elections were marred by accusations of double names and voter fraud, and CPP-appointed NEC member Em Sophat told reporters at a press conference at the NEC offices inside the Interior Ministry that he was pleased with the final results achieved.
“In general, the voter registration to create a new voter list went smoothly, safely and got a good result,” Sophat said, adding that there had been some problems but that they were corrected.
“Firstly, there was the implementation of work by the CONTINUED
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