A senior National Election Committee (NEC) official said there would be no extensions to voter registration or the voter list review. Anyone who failed to register before the upcoming December 8 deadline would be unable to participate in next year’s national election.

NEC deputy secretary-general Som Sorida said a large number of people have registered with their local election commissions.

He noted that NEC had initially estimated 409,056 people would come forward, but the first 34 days of registration had already seen 453,950 voters sign up.

“If people fail to register before the December 8 deadline, they forfeit their right to take part in Cambodian’s democratic process. We will not delay the registration or add any days to the deadline,” he said.

He explained that the deadlines had been set because the NEC needed time to post voter lists in advance of the election, to allow people to lodge protests or request corrections.

Sorida stated that they could lodge protests if they had been stricken from the lists by mistake or if their names had been spelt differently to their National ID cards.

“These complaints will be addressed by the Constitutional Council. Following that process, the formal validated voter lists will be published on February 20 next year. There will be no time to register those who miss the December 8 deadline, he added.

According to the NEC’s November 23 report, from October 20 to November 22, a total of 453,950 people had been registered and 196,627 removed from the voter lists. The NEC had corrected the data of 44,582 people, noting that 127,218 people now dwell in a different commune.