October 23rd, 2006
RESERVATIONS ABOUT NEC STATISTICS
Today, the National Election Committee published statistics showing that it has dramatically overshot its target: while there were officially only 577,205 new voters to register, the NEC succeeded, from October 1st to 20th, in registering 898,410 citizens as first-time voters, meaning 55 percent more than the best possible figure from a mathematical point of view.
This surprising figure can be explained by the following facts:
1- Official statistics, from both the police and the NEC, underestimate the actual number of new voters represented by citizens who have recently reached the age of 18.
2- A number of people registered twice (the second time as "new" voters) to avoid correcting their names and other data as initially stated on voter lists, which present too many mistakes in their eyes (it was easier to register from scratch).
3- More ghost voters were introduced by the CPP to constitute "reserves" to inflate the number of votes that will be attributed to the ruling party on Election Day.
Despite the excessively satisfactory result obtained on paper by the NEC, there are still a large number of people wanting and waiting to get registered as voters.
SRP DEMANDS REGISTRATION EXTENSION FOR 147 COMMUNES
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy today wrote to NEC president Im Suosdey asking for a minimum of four-day extension of the registration period (due to normally end on October 24th) for 147 communes in Phnom Penh and eight provinces.
Two reasons are put forward to justify the demand:
1- To allow thousands of victims of land grabs and evictions, who have forcibly been displaced from one place to another, to get also registered as voters in their new communes of residence despite political discrimination and administrative harassment.
2- To give some extra days for registration to citizens in some communes recently affected by floods as well as in a number of communes with a relatively large population. Very often, in the larger communes, there are still many people queuing up to get registered because there is a shortage of staff and equipment (whether small or large, any commune has only one secretary and one stamp).
In Poipet, which is Cambodia 's largest commune with a population of over 100,000 inhabitants, the commune council (made up of representatives from the three major political parties) unanimously requested the NEC on October 20th to postpone the registration deadline until October 30th. Request in Khmer is available here.
Sam Rainsy's letter in Khmer and list of the 147 communes is available here.
SRP Cabinet
012 364 555
012 990 988
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