Officials Vow To Smooth Registration

KOMPONG THOM- The last time Cambodians were asked to register to vote, confusion and voter in­timidation reigned as political factions struggled to control the outcome of the 2002 commune council elections, monitors said.

Not this time, pledged elections officials here. Proper training was completed earlier this month. Everyone knows the routine. It will go smoothly, said Sok Chan­thou, Kompong Thom’s chief of the election secretariat. “We ex­pect no complaints,” she said.

If she’s right, Cambodia’s registration monitors will have little to re­port beginning today with the official start of registration for the 2003 national elections. But they’ll watch closely anyway, said Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections.

Some 1,608 Comfrel observers will monitor 12,845 registration stations to look for evidence of voter intimidation or partisan behavior.

“We will watch individuals to see if they make it difficult to register,” he said. “When people complained during the registration process for the 2002 elections we learned that some officials were telling people they had to go to their commune chief to register, but that’s not correct. They weren’t supposed to go and it made some people very unhappy.”

Elections monitors at the time said lower-than-expected voter turnout was partially the result of such strong-arm tactics. Outright threats and intimidation were re­ported at 598 of the nation’s 12,378 registration stations. Poor training of elections officials also hampered the registration effort, the monitors reported.

“I think the most important thing is to ensure that the envi­ron­ment of the polling station al­lows people to register as they want to, and that the officials at the registration station should be more competent,” Koul Panha said. “If there is some obstruction or any kind of procedure that makes people not happy, that will encourage people to not vote.”

Aiding the registration process is the fact that nearly three-quarters of Cambodia’s 6.8 million eligible voters are already registered and will not need to register again.