Monday, October 15, 2007

Opposition party proposes an extension in the vote registration

14 October 2007
By Sophorn
Radio Free Asia

Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Opposition party officials have proposed to the National Election Committee (NEC) to extend the period for the vote registration and the voting list verification, in order to allow everybody to be able to register and review their names on the voting list.

Eng Chhay Eang, SRP Secretary-general, said that, in the past, a number of commune chiefs and clerks did not fulfill their duty according to the NEC schedule, and a number of other issues cropped up, such as: “Currently, in a number of provinces, there is a lot of rain, this caused difficulties to a number of people who cannot register (to vote). In some other cases, some commune chiefs do not allow the registration during the 3 days celebration of the Pchum Ben festival, they closed their offices. This is why the SRP proposed to the NEC for a delay in the registration process.”

Phnom Penh SRP MP Ho Vann indicated that since the start of the vote registration and the verification of the voting list, a number of commune officials did not fulfill their work on a regular basis, and in some communes in Phnom Penh city, on 14 October 2007, the door to the (commune) office is not even opened yet.

Ho Vann said: “Some communes are (not) opened. We saw that there are a lot of people who have not registered yet, and the number of people who came to verify their names (on the voting list) is still short, for example, in Phnom Penh city, 110,326 names were erased, and those who came to verify their names on the voting list is not even 10,000 yet.”

Kul Panha, Comfrel director, supported the opposition party proposal. He indicated that an extension of the voting registration is not a problem, however, if people did not register to vote, or did not have a chance to verify their names on the voting list, then they will not be able to vote, and this is a loss of their freedom to select their representatives.

In response to the proposal above, Tep Nytha, NEC secretary-general, said that the registration and the verification of the voting list for the upcoming 2008 election is already longer than in past years.

Tep Nytha added that the NEC will review the results of the vote registration and the verification of the voting list on Monday of next week, and it will make a decision at that time. “The length of this year’s vote registration is more than 30-day, and the NEC will review this issue next week.”

Tep Nytha indicated that the approximate number of people who register to vote for the first time is 680,000, and the results of the vote registration and voting list verification, up to 08 October 2007, indicated that 503,000 people have registered to vote, and among the number of names erased (from the voting list) stemming from Form 10-25, there are 30,000 people who came to protest.

Based on the NEC schedule, the vote registration and the verification of the voting list will end on October 20.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agreed with SRP member to request NEC to extend so that many people will be able to registrer for voting right.

Anonymous said...

Dear readers

Election is about choice's expression or selection.By not having had names of eligible citizens at time of election would lead to unfair election,thus extension should be provided.NEC is to manage and serve cambodians to choose their representative.

Independent committee or electoral commission should be comprised of selected member from each profession:
-Rotal representative
-Law entity; ie lawyer
-Educational institution;ie teacher
-Health profession; ie nurse/doctor
-Ex army officer
-Ex police officer
-Trade union representative
-Agricultural representative
-Economic representative

Each sub committee should be available for provincial management
for electoral registration as well as conducting the appropriate measure of election.

These committees will be assisted by local authority and indepedently control the election.
NEC is an independent organisation

I fully endorse SRP request.

Neang SA

Anonymous said...

I agree totally with the two MPs, Mr. Eng Chhay Eang and Mr. Ho Vann. The NEC should honor the request for extention of the voter registration periods by the two MPs. It is a very important matter. They also should look into allowing Khmer abroad register to vote from their countries if they have khmer identification....

Anonymous said...

No way, if you want to vote here, you better send in your income taxes (10%) first, no free lunch, stupid!

Anonymous said...

Do whatever is right and legal to khmer people, you are in good candidate, you will win election 2008.

Anonymous said...

Yeah right, good candidate, hahaha, LOL, hahaha.