Voter Registration Remains Complicated for Citizens: Expert

An election staff helps a Cambodian elderly woman to cast her ballot at a polling station in Kampong Cham province, north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, July 27, 2008. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Sok Khemara, VOA khmer
Washington, D.C Friday, 10 September 2010

“Some countries apply this system, a system where people do not have the obligation to register.”

A Cambodia elections expert says voter registration remains complicated for everyday citizens and puts more burden on them than the state.

Cambodia also lacks a single database for the population, further complicating the process, said Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, as a guest on “Hello VOA” Thursday.

“Some countries apply this system, a system where people do not have the obligation to register,” he said. “They organize a system to check the database and the age of people in order to place their names on a voting list” and inform them where they will vote, he said.

“But Cambodia still puts the obligation on people who have turned 18 to register,” he said.