Tin Sokhavuth
 |
| A voter enters his thumbprint in the computer using the NEC’s new registration software. COMFREL |
The European Union (EU) on Wednesday donated 25 different kinds of electronic equipment to the National Election Committee (NEC) for the upcoming voter registration for the 2017 commune elections.
According to a press release issued by the NEC on Wednesday, the electronic equipment included 2,400 HP notebooks, 2,425 computer monitors and various kinds of electronic equipment that will arrive soon.
“After receiving the laptops and equipment, voter registration for the new voter list in 2016 should be carried out without any problem,” read the letter.
Hang Puthea, an NEC spokesman, told Khmer Times that all voters will be electronically registered from September 1 to November 29, while the election will be held on June 4 next year.
“It is an electronic voter registration system and we have three months to do this work. This is an official registration for the election in Cambodia to register 9.6 million voters across the Kingdom. We hope we will succeed in doing so,” said Mr. Puthea.
However, Mr. Puthea said one negative was that the number of communes was on the rise – before there were 1,633 communes, but the number had risen to 1,644.
“As a result, extra work will be needed to work with those new communes. Also the rainy season is still a major problem for our team to register voters in the countryside,” added Mr. Puthea.
Each of the 1,644 communes will be assisted by a team from the NEC to register approximately 7,000 citizens living in each commune.
He said that after the registration deadline, a list of registered voters will be published for citizens to review and file any complaints.
Technicians from the NEC will use laptops and fingerprint scanners to register voters’ thumbprints, create ID cards and enter names on the voter list in the NEC’s database.
Kuoy Bun Roeun, an official working for the NEC, previously told Khmer Times that the committee will use different marketing campaigns such as advertisements and TV spots to ensure as many citizens as possible register to vote.
“We will use all media in Cambodia to encourage people to register,” said Mr. Bun Roeun.
He added that finding people who know how to use computers in rural areas could be a challenge. And, without reliable electricity, the NEC’s teams will only have 12 hours to register voters before needing to recharge their equipment.
Due to the lack of internet connectivity in rural areas, the teams will have to go to cities where they can connect to the internet to upload voter registration data to the NEC’s server.
To facilitate the voter registration process, a team from the Interior Ministry will follow the NEC’s team to provide ID cards to voting-age citizens when needed.
By linking names to thumbprints, the new electronic voter registration system will prevent people from voting twice under one name, or voting under another person’s name. It will also prevent the “ghost voter” problem, where registered voters are found to be nonexistent.
Regarding security, last year the Japanese government sent a team of database experts to help the NEC prevent its voter registration database from being hacked by intruders.
For Mr. Puthea, the main goal of electronic voter registration is to ensure that every Cambodian gets only one vote.
There are 1,644 communes in the Kingdom and each commune council comprises five to 11 members depending on demography and geography. Members of the council are elected through a proportional system. All political parties can compete with each other by presenting a list of candidates at least twice the number of seats in each commune, but no independent candidates are allowed.
The first commune elections were held in February 2002. The third and last commune elections took place on June 3, 2012.
In 2012, there were 9,203,493 eligible voters among a population of 14.2 million. Ten political parties contested 11,459 seats. The 2012 election was organized by the old NEC which was dominated by members of the ruling party.
No comments:
Post a Comment