Upcoming polls

AROUND 310,000 people will be eligible to register to vote when the National Election Committee conducts its annual voter registration drive next month, election officials said yesterday. The annual registration period, which runs from October 1-20 and comes ahead of the 2012 commune elections, seeks to enrol young people and those who have moved to different communes since the last poll.

“Please, all citizens who have reached election age, prepare documents like citizenship ID cards, nationality certificates and residency certificates to register for voting rights,” said Tep Nitha, secretary general of NEC.

Tep Nitha said those who had moved were required to register at the commune office at their new locations to have their names deleted fro old lists.

Koul Panha, executive director of local election monitor COMFREL, said some Phnom Penh residents who had been evicted and forced to move

had previously had problems registering to vote. He said that NEC should issue special guidelines to communes that are home to urban evictees, requesting that they be particularly accommodating of the newcomers.