The National Election Committee (NEC) will run a training course for its officials from the capital and provinces on Tuesday, regarding the collection of information to register eligible voters.

NEC deputy secretary-general Som Sorida said on Monday that officials who are chiefs and deputy chiefs of secretariats in the capital and provinces will attend the training so they are prepared to register voters from March to April.

“There are three reasons why some names will be left out of the electoral register. The persons are deceased, have moved address, or are disenfranchised. We base this on the NEC’s 2019 electoral register. This is the first task. After this, we move on to register new voters,” he said.

Sorida said the names will then be cross-referenced from May 1 to July 31.

NEC officials in the capital and provinces, he said, would collect information from citizens through village chiefs, commune clerks, police station chiefs, and commune and district chiefs.

They are the most important players to know well about the true numbers of people who live in their localities, he noted.

He said from this year onwards, the law requires the NEC to collect such information bi-monthly, update the voter list by deleting those who have deceased and registering new voters.

“We will do this because Article 51 of the parliamentary election law has tasked the NEC with collecting information every two months after the voters’ list in 2020 is formally validated,” he said.

A notice from the NEC on Monday said more than eight million people are registered to vote, accounting for about 84 per cent of eligible voters.