After a three-month registration period, the National Election Committee will release its preliminary voter list on January 3, giving political parties, civil society and election monitors until January 14 to lodge complaints for any discrepancies found in the rolls.

With commune elections scheduled for June 4 next year, the NEC will release the preliminary list next week and, after assessing any complaints, will publish the final voter roll on February 12.

NEC member Hing Thirith said commune councils had three days to assess a complaint, which had to be based on established voter criterion, such as age, nationality and permanent address.

“If their name is wrong or incorrect because of any reason, they have the right to file a complaint for correction of the name and other information so that it is consistent with the documents that they submitted during the registration,” he said.

At the end of the three-month registration period, the NEC was able to register just under 7.9 million of the 9.6 million eligible voters.

Cambodian People’s Party spokesman Sok Eysan said his party believed that about 67 percent of registered voters were ruling party voters, and therefore had every reason to ensure that voter details were accurate. “We have registered the names already, and if we do not do proper verification, our registration for the election will be useless,” Eysan said.

While opposition spokesmen could not be reached yesterday, Koul Panha, of election monitor Comfrel, said the Cambodia National Rescue Party was expected to lodge about 5,000 complaints challenging prospective voters’ Cambodian nationality.