June 19, 2023
PHNOM PENH – The National Election Committee (NEC) has called on all eligible Cambodians who are living or working abroad to play their part in the Kingdom’s democratic process and return home to vote.
At the same time, the body announced that a working group is presently printing and verifying ballots for each polling station. It expects the work to be complete ahead of schedule.
The committee appealed to all Cambodians abroad to make sure they are present between 7am and 7pm on Sunday July 23, so they could take part.
In its June 14 appeal, the NEC explained that in order to vote, Cambodian citizens must have their names on the voter list and present a valid Cambodian Nationality Identity Card or election identification document (EID).
Citizens who are already on the voter list but do not have a valid Cambodian identity card, or have not yet received a replacement for a lost or damaged card, can apply for an EID.
The documents will be available from commune election commissions from June 22 to July 21. The person’s identity must be verified by commune authorities and their name must be on the official voter list.
On June 15, NEC chairman Prach Chan conducted an inspection tour of Navin Printing House in Boeung Kak I commune of the capital’s Tuol Kork district. The printers are responsible for manufacturing the ballots for the 7th parliamentary election.
The inspection tour was attended by representatives of 10 political parties and several civil society organisations, as well as election observers and journalists.
According to the NEC report, as of June 14, the ballot printing process is made up of two steps: the physical printing and the NEC inspection process. Ballots have been printed for 11 provinces, with the printing house currently running off the ballot forms for Tbong Khmum province.
The inspection, verification and packaging of the ballots by an NEC working group have been completed for four provinces.
NEC spokesman Hang Puthea said the printing is scheduled for completion about two weeks before the election.
“We need to print more than 13 million ballots. Over 11 million of them are for direct use at polling stations, with more than one million to be kept in reserve by the provincial election commissions, in case replacement ballots are needed,” he explained.