Bangladesh News

The voter list is likely to have about nine crore people after being updated, while the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ (BBS) latest census report shows 8.02 crore people as eligible for being registered as voters.
Earlier, a draft voter list published by the Election Commission (EC) enlisting 9.13 crore voters triggered an enormous controversy in May this year because of an unusual rise in the number of voters on that list.

The BBS report shows that the number of people of the voting age of 18 years and above should stand at a maximum of 8.02 crore if none of them had died since 2001 and if every eligible person was listed.

The calculation is based on the BBS 2001 census report completed soon after the last voter list had been prepared ahead of the last election. The report showed 8.02 crore people to be 13 years of age and above. Those who were 13 in 2001 should reach the voting age this year.

Considering the progress in updating the voter list, Secretary to the EC Secretariat Abdur Rashid Sarkar, yesterday said the total number of voters on the updated list will be around nine crore.

As the much talked about draft voter list was cancelled by the Supreme Court, the EC started updating the existing voter list, claiming to obey the Supreme Court’s verdict, from July 1. In the beginning the task was confined in different offices, but the EC started sending its officials for door to door visits to get the job done from July 21.

Since then, about one crore people applied to register as voters through the EC staff across the country till yesterday.

The EC secretary however said a total of 84.50 lakh people applied for registering their names as voters till last Thursday.

“The progress of the task is good and we hope the number of voters on the list will stand at nine crore, more or less,” Abdur Rashid Sarkar told reporters yesterday at his office.

Officials of the EC Secretariat however said the number of applicants rose to about one crore after Thursday as five lakh people on an average applied daily for registration. Several lakh people, particularly in the metropolitan cities, will apply for registration before the August 10 deadline, they hope.

The number of new voters will be added to 7.64 crore existing voters on the list and the names that will be deleted from the list will be deducted from the existing number.

Only 7.33 lakh applications for deletion of names from the existing voter list have been received since the updating process started.

Observing the current rate of people’s response to the process of deleting names from the voter list, many election officials said names of fake voters and of persons who died since 2000 will remain on the updated list.

The EC secretary also expressed his concern over the issue of deletion of names from the list and said people are not cooperating to delete names from the list.

The existing voter list prepared in 2000 enlisted 7.48 crore voters and the number now stands at 7.64 crore through updating in the last five years. Many electoral experts as well as political parties however questioned the accuracy of the voter list.

REMUNERATIONS FOR TEMP STAFF
The EC secretary yesterday declared that the temporary staff recruited for updating the voter list will receive Tk 1000 each as remuneration.

Some district election officers, who are working as registration officers, termed the amount as very inadequate and feared that the ongoing task may be hampered due to poor remunerations.

The secretary however said the field level staff will be paid more if the secretariat gets more fund from the finance ministry.

“But further allocation for remunerations will be fixed after reviewing the performance of the staff,” the secretary said adding, “We have nothing to do unless we get more allocation.”

Earlier, the EC Secretariat however had planned to allocate Tk 1500 as remuneration for each of the 1.35 lakh temporary staff but later it changed its plan.