Just under 7.9 million Cambodians enrolled to vote in next year’s commune elections during the registration period that closed on Wednesday, results released yesterday show, with the figure well short of the goal of 9.6 million people older than 18.

The official figures show 7,873,194 people registered to the new national voter list, with most provinces having between 70 and 90 percent of their estimated eligible voters signed up for next year’s commune elections.

The new digital list will also be used as the basis for the 2018 national election, but the National Election Committee has said that it can update the list again in late 2017. The best registration rates were seen in the small provinces of Kep (93.2 percent), Pailin (91.2 percent) and Ratanakkiri (90.4 percent), which all had less than 100,000 estimated eligible voters and send only one lawmaker to the 123-seat National Assembly.

The only province with a significant population to see more than 90 percent of people registered was Kampong Speu, with 90.9 percent of voters registered. The worst registration rates were seen in Battambang (69 percent) and Banteay Meanchey (69.6 percent).