The National Election Committee cited precautions against hacking in announcing that it will shut down its online voter list 24 hours before Sunday’s election.

In a statement dated Monday and obtained yesterday, the NEC said its website, voterlist.org.kh, will be inaccessible from the early hours of Saturday.

“We want to maintain public order and regulations to avoid heavy amounts of traffic,” the document says, adding that the election body was concerned the website could be hacked by those wanting to post election material on a day when campaigning was banned.

Anonymous Cambodia, the local arm of the notorious global hacking collective, claimed last week to have leaked names from an unreleased National Election Committee voter list. Those names, the group said, revealed illegal registrants.

Tep Nytha, NEC secretary-general, dismissed the list as a fake, but said yesterday that the election body was taking threats of interference seriously.

“We’re concerned about someone hacking our voter list,” he said. “We’re also afraid people will use the list to commit identity fraud.”

He added that anyone found hacking voter lists would be arrested.

According to the NEC, there are 9,675,453 voters eligible to vote on Sunday.

The Post reported yesterday, however, that nearly all Phnom Penh communes have voter registration rates exceeding 100 per cent — amounting to more than 145,000 extra names.

In Phnom Penh alone, more than 25,000 duplicate names appear on the list — despite NEC assurances that they had been removed.