The National Election Committee (NEC) on Thursday released the results of an internal audit of its voter list and found that 9 percent of people registered to vote on July 28 could not find their names on the list.
The audit’s findings are similar to those of separate surveys carried out by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) and Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), which found that 1 in 10 voters could be disenfranchised from this month’s vote.
According to the NEC’s audit—carried out by the regional consultancy Business and Marketing Research Solutions Asia (BMRS)—13 percent of all names on the voter list were entered incorrectly.
“Despite its efforts and commitment, the voter lists cannot be 100 percent perfect,” the NEC said in a summary report of the audit, released at its headquarters in Phnom Penh.
“Regarding the issues raised about the voter lists, [the] NEC will look into solutions based on past experiences, suggestions and concerned stakeholders, and the post-election conference that will take place after the 2013 election,” it adds.
The audit carried out by NDI found that more than 1 in 10 people who are registered for the election appear not to exist, and that 9 percent of previous voters have been taken off local voting lists unfairly. Comfrel’s survey estimated that 1.25 million voters could lose their right to vote in the election.
The NEC strongly rejected the findings of those audits and challenged the methodologies used by both NDI and Comfrel.
For its audit, BMRS used a sample of 2,472 people across 24 provinces. It found that 91 percent of eligible voters had registered. Of those, 9 percent, or 198 people, were unable to find their names on the list.
After receiving the information, the NEC used what it called “advanced capability” to track down the names of 131 of those people to rectify their problem, bringing the 9 percent down to just 3 percent of people in the sample whose names could not be found.
The report did not say why similar attempts to fix irregularities had not been carried out for the population at large.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday, NEC Chairman Im Suosdey played down the conclusion that 9 percent of voters could not find their names on the voter list.
“Before we say that their names are missing, we looked into it in detail,” he said. “For example, Yorn Theng sometimes writes Yoeun Theng. In the list, it’s Yorn Theng. But it’s the same birth date and same address, so it’s the same person. We can’t say the name is missing, and that person can’t vote.
“If you can’t find it, don’t give up. Take it to verify it with the NEC to see how that person cannot find his name and how the name is missing,” Mr. Suosdey added.
Still, Mr. Suosdey said any such irregularities could not be fixed for this year’s election, a demand that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party has issued on many occasions recently.
“We can only change it for the next registration [for the next election],” Mr. Suosdey said. “There are a million issues in each election, and we can’t just use one little problem to cover the 1 million good issues that we’ve done.”
In the report, the NEC recommended that “any audit of the voters’ lists should be done with an in-depth and thorough search.”
Responding to the recommendation, NDI country director Laura Thornton said: “The odd part about the NEC audit report is the recommendation.”
“NDI requested access to the full voter list database many times, but the NEC refused to share it with us or any independent organization, including Comfrel, despite the fact that this is standard international practice,” she said in an email. “So, how exactly could we follow their own recommendation?”
Koul Panha, executive director of Comfrel, said the NEC had a distinct advantage in finding missing voter names because it has access to the entire computerized database.
“We were only able to double check within the commune and province using a PDF,” he said.
Mr. Panha also questioned how the NEC had found the names of voters that did not appear on the voter list, and said that it is possible the NEC found voters’ names in provinces they do not live in.
“It looks like ghost voters,” he said.
As for the 13 percent of names that have been incorrectly put on the voter list, Mr. Panha said that it represents the number of people who will likely be turned away on voting day.
In response to Mr. Suosdey’s suggestion that people with the same birthdate and address would be allowed to vote, Mr. Panha said: “That’s a violation of the law by their own regulation and guidelines.”
