The National Election Committee (NEC) office at Tonle Basac commune in Chamkarmon on in January. Heng Chivoan
The Capital-Provincial Election Secretariat is conducting a census of the population in each commune, with surveys slated for August 13-25 to update the 2022 voter list.
Som Sorida, spokesman for the National Election Committee (NEC), told The Post on August 9 that the upcoming census is designed to assist with the preparation of the lists, which would be prepared from October 20 until December 8.
He said the census will allow the NEC to delete the names of people who have died, update the addresses of people who have moved house and document those who have been deprived of the right to vote.
“Thus, the statistics we collect now will provide the NEC with an accurate record of voter numbers for next year’s national election,” he said.
According to Sorida, the estimated number of new registrations will be around 500,000. But without knowing how many names would need to be removed, he said it was impossible to say what the total number of voters would be.
Ky Chansophal, director of the Pursat Provincial Election Secretariat, told The Post on August 9 that he had passed on what was required to the communes under his purview and shared the information with provincial administration, representatives of political parties and NGOs.
He added that each commune in the province was working with village chiefs to extract the required date quickly, so it could be sent to the NEC.
“The NEC wants us to collect population statistics over 10 days, but we have published them early as we want each commune to have time to work with the chiefs of villages. This way, we are making sure we will meet the NEC’s deadline,” he said.
According to Chansophal, the census will compile statistics of people who have never registered to vote, people who have just reached 18 years of age (those born since July 24, 2005) and people who have passed away since the last census was taken.
Nim Vansam, director of the Siem Reap Provincial Election Secretariat, told The Post on August 9 that he too had already sent details of the census to commune authorities in order to get the work carried out quickly.
“We cannot offer an estimate of what the numbers look like – we must wait for the results to come back from the communes,” he said.
