The National Election Committee (NEC) will in November start a pilot project testing its new computerized voter registration system in 43 villages across the country, NEC spokesman Hang Puthea said Thursday.
Mr. Puthea said the pilot would be carried out in villages in 25 communes selected as a representative sample of the country, and would cost about $700,000.
The funds were left over from the old NEC before the current body was created this year as part of electoral reforms. “This budget is the old NEC budget…meaning that the old NEC froze [that money] by not updating the voter list in 2014,” Mr. Puthea said. “We asked the government to use that budget to cover the pilot project for computerized voter registration.”
Mr. Puthea said the project would take place between November 1 and 15 and would gather information about the NEC’s technical abilities, its relationship with local authorities and citizens’ knowledge about digitized registration.
A countrywide registration process is set to be carried out next year ahead of commune elections in 2017 and the national election in 2018.
