The National Election Committee (NEC) and Japanese experts are slated to meet again today to finalise the procedure for electronic voter registration, which is anticipated to launch early next year, Hang Puthea, spokesman of the NEC, confirmed yesterday.

The NEC began talking with Japanese experts and the European Union on July 7 to receive recommendations on how the Cambodian government should design registration procedures using this new technology, as well as on the creation of digital voter lists.

Puthea said the NEC is planning to launch electronic voter registration testing in October and voters should be able to enroll with the new system by early 2016.

“The process of election reform has been moving forward,” said Puthea, adding, “Japan and the EU have addressed their commitment for consultation with the NEC in helping digitise the list”.

Koul Panha, from local election monitoring NGO Comfrel, called on the NEC to recruit at least the 2,500 people needed for electoral registration teams in order to register approximately 10 million voters.