Cambodia testing biometric voter registration system

Cambodia’s National Election Committee announced that its testing of a new biometric voter registration system is “running smoothly”, having already registered more than 14,000 people across 24 provinces in a week and a half, according to a report by The Phnom Penh Post.

The move comes a month after Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC) announced it will begin piloting biometric voter registration in each of the provinces on November 1 in advance of the country’s national registration next year,

The NEC is responsible for organizing new voter lists for the 2017 commune elections and 2018 national ballot.

To accomplish this, the committee has been rolling out a biometric voter registration system in selected regions of the country.

With the assistance of computer experts from Japan and the European Union, the NEC has been working on identifying which areas need improvements before voter registration begins next year, said NEC spokesman Hang Puthea.

“We found some problems, such as poor internet speed, but we can fix that before next year when we start voter registration. We will look for companies who can provide higher-speed internet,” said Puthea. “Another problem we found was that in the areas with garment factories, workers could not register, because our registration stations are closed by the time they finish work, while some areas have no electricity.”

The new biometric voter system is designed to curb voter identity fraud by recording each voter’s photo and thumbprints and inputting them into a database, which can be accessed from polling stations across the nation.

The NEC aims to register 32,525 people by the end of the 15-day test cycle, said Puthea.

Article Topics

biometric database  |  biometrics  |  Cambodia  |  elections  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity management  |  voter registration