Many political parties have registered, but only 10 parties have activities

picture: NEC's vote-counting.

The Mirror, Vol. 11, No. 538 “Phnom Penh: Mr. Tep Nitha, the secretary-general of the National Election Committee [NEC], said on 18 December 2007 that 669,365 names of citizens have been deleted from the voter lists of the 2007 election, and most of those names are known to be of those who have moved away or have died… Mr. Tep Nitha said this at a press conference on the first review of the new draft voters’ lists, comparing them with the first voters’ list in 2007 at the NEC office. “Mr. Mao Sophearith, a member of the NEC, said that the NEC has checked and corrected the name lists sent from communes and subdistricts to the NEC, and after the review by the NEC, the name lists have been sent back to the communes and subdistricts of 17 provinces and towns so far. However, during the third term election, the NEC affirmed that approximately 100 communes and subdistricts changed the voters’ lists. “Mr. Tep Nitha said, ‘The NEC has the task to create voters’ lists appropriately, based on documents where we registered the voters’ names at the places where they live, including their age and date of birth, so that we have properly corrected lists, so that officials who administer the elections can use these lists appropriately.’ He continued to explain that the sending back of the documents to the communes and subdistricts is to have the writing checked, not for checking the legal status of the documents [which has already been done by the NEC].. “The NEC had instructed commune and subdistrict clerks to review the draft lists sent with the previous voters’ list carefully at important points, such as checking of code numbers and the sites of polling offices, and to review the number of voters in each polling office. If the lists sent by the NEC had too many voters, the names which had to be deleted had to be crossed with a line; if names were missing, the names had to be written on the lower section of the lists.. “Mr. Tep Nitha continued that there are approximately 1,500 polling offices for the 2008 election, and there are 8,132,063 citizens who have registered in the lists for the 2008 election. He continued that there are more than 50 parties which have officially registered in the lists at the Ministry of Interior; however, only 10 parties [names not mentioned] often attend meetings with the NEC.” Koh Santepheap, Vol.40, #6222, 19.12.2007