Following a daylong conference in Phnom Penh with more than 100 party officials, leaders of the opposition CNRP on Friday said they had decided that helping people obtain identification cards was a central concern in the months leading up to elections in 2017 and 2018.
“We asked party representatives from across the country what the key issue is that needs to be settled. They said that many people across the country do not have the new national identification cards,” CNRP President Sam Rainsy said during an afternoon press conference.
“The party decided a moment ago to comprehensively offer help to people across the country to obtain national identification cards,” he said, adding that the party would send out activists to identify people who had yet to receive the identification cards, which automatically allow a person to vote.
“For impoverished people, we will help pay for the cost of transportation and administrative fees for them so they can get identification cards,” Mr. Rainsy said.
Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the ruling CPP, said that the government was also working hard to issue identification cards to all citizens.
