Opposition Urges Renewed Campaign for Voter Registration

A senior opposition official has made a plea for voters to register ahead of local elections planned for next year.

The deadline for voter registration falls at the end of November.

Speaking on Friday, Yim Sovann, Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman, said more than 2 million people had yet to register.

“So our party would like to call on all of officials at the management level to immediately go [to communities]. From today on, we, especially members of commune councils, have to put in effort to ensure that everyone has registered. We cannot delay anymore,” he said.

He added that the party had asked the election committee to extend the registration period, but did not think the request would be granted.

Sok Eysan, ruling Cambodian People’s Party spokesman, said the CPP had banned some campaigning by the CNRP during the voter registration period because it was “cheating” people by spreading “propaganda”.

“We observe that they are pushing workers who have problems to register, telling them to go and register to make change,” he said. “That is opportunism.”

Hang Puthea, National Election Committee (NEC) spokesman, said there had been a lack of cooperation between the authorities and campaigners.

“If both parties could work together, no such problems would occur,” he said.

Since it was reformed following the last general election in 2013, the NEC has been busy drafting a new voter list.

About 9.6 million people are eligible to vote. As of late last week, fewer than 7.5 million people had registered.