The National Election Committee headquarters in Phnom Penh. Heng Chivoan
As of January 9, a total of 15 complaints had been filed by citizens to their commune councils nationwide regarding their election registration either being incorrect or improperly deleted, according to the National Election Committee (NEC).
The complaints were officially made after the initial posting of the lists of registered voters and removed names. The voter lists were posted at commune halls across the country from January 3 until January 14 as well as on social media platforms like Facebook.
NEC said in a press statement on January 10 that the 15 complaints were received by commune councils and are being solved at that level as a starting point. None of the complaints has reached the NEC or the Constitutional Council, which are the upper levels for solving such complaints forwarded on from the commune councils.
NEC said the process of solving the complaints went through three stages. Firstly, the filing of a complaint must be made within 10 days of the date of the posting of the voter lists and a decision on the complaints must be made within three days of the date when the complaint was received.
If there is no solution to be found at the commune level, the complaint must be forwarded to the NEC within five days of the decision from the commune council. The NEC will then make a decision about the complaint within 5 days of the date of receiving the complaint.
Should no solution be found at the NEC, the complaint can be forwarded on to the Constitutional Council within five days of the NEC’s ruling. The Constitutional Council will make a final ruling within 10 days of receiving the complaint.
“The 15 complaints concerned objections by people who did not find their names on the electoral register. However, two of the 15 complaints have now been withdrawn and only 13 remain from people demanding to keep their names on the list,” said NEC spokesman Som Sorida on January 11.
Sam Sokuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), said on January 11 that the NEC had given voters plenty of opportunity to check their names and make complaint should they find error or their names are not on the list.
He said the small numbers of complaint could be because people are less interested in checking their names.
“Lots of people told me why bother checking the list when the winner of the election is a foregone conclusion already,” he said.
“Not so many people have checked their names. The reason is that the people do not pay much attention. I asked some of them in the provinces I had visited and they said they did not bother because they know who the winner and loser will be,” he said.
