Cambodian election committee launches computerized voter registration

Cambodia's National Election Committee (NEC) launched on Thursday a computerized voter registration project, using a new computer system to store data as the country heads toward two major elections in upcoming years.

NEC's secretary-general Tep Nytha said the computerized registration for some 9.6 million eligible voters will commence on September 1 and run for three months.

"This is the first time that Cambodia launches the computerized voter registration," he said during the launching ceremony.

Nytha said previously, the registration for voters had been made by hand-writing in communes and the hand-written voter lists had been sent to the NEC's headquarters in Phnom Penh for inputting the data into the computer.

"But now, we launch the computerized registration for voters, so our NEC officials will use computers to register eligible voters in their communes and the data will be transferred to the NEC's headquarters by internet," he said.

According to Nytha, nearly 3,000 NEC officials will be used to provide the computerized voter registration.

He said those to be eligible to register for votes must have a Cambodian identification card and is at least 18 years old.

The new digital system has been supported by the European Union with an aim of ensuring free, fair, credible and inclusive elections in the future.

"Today's event is a testimony to the NEC's accomplishments following the political agreement of July 22, 2014 (between the ruling and opposition parties), which triggered an election reform process," said George Edgar, ambassador of the European Union to Cambodia.

"To support the consolidation of democracy in Cambodia, the outcome of the upcoming elections in 2017 and 2018 must reflect the genuine will of Cambodian voters," he said.

Cambodia is gearing up for two key elections: the commune election on June 4, 2017 and the national election on July 29, 2018. Enditem