The National Election Committee (NEC) has announced it will recruit 2,400 computer-trained staff to oversee electronic voter registration, due to be launched early next year across more than 1,600 communes.

NEC spokesman Hang Puthea confirmed the Japanese government would assist in constructing the computer server for the system and will dispatch a Japanese computer expert to work at the NEC’s computer centre in October.

“We don’t know how much [assistance with the server] will cost yet because we still wait for quotes from Japanese companies,” Puthea said yesterday.

Talks have been ongoing since July 7 between NEC head Kouy Bunreoun and Japanese representative Ryuichi Tomizawa, who has offered recommendations on how the Cambodian government should design registration procedures, as well as on the creation of a digital voter lists.

“The NEC expresses thanks to Japan for continuing to strengthening cooperation on electoral reform in Cambodia and hope that this cooperation will build confidence among voters and all relevant parties”, stated an NEC press release issued on July 10.

However, Koul Panha, of local election monitoring NGO Comfrel, called on the NEC to recruit at least 2,500 people, a number he said was needed in order to register approximately 10 million voters, and to “shorten the timeframe for voter registration”.