Bangladesh News

Printing of the updated voter list before announcement of the next parliamentary election schedule in late November has become uncertain while the vendors said the massive task cannot be completed before December.

The Election Commission (EC) Secretariat planned to complete the printing task by November 18 and the EC will announce the schedule for the ninth parliamentary election at the end of that month.

The EC did not provide the vendors with the task of printing as of yesterday.

For the first time, the EC is facing such a situation whereas on earlier occasions it always had the voter list prepared a few months before declaration of the election schedule.

Considering the situation, a number of district election officials said they would get very little time to check for the accuracy of the task.

This time they will have to complete the task for arranging the voter list on the basis of the polling stations hurriedly along with the other tasks ahead of the polls and it will be an extra burden on them, they said.

Asked whether the EC will declare the polls schedule without completing the printing of the voter list, EC Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar said there is no relation between printing of the updated voter list and declaration of the election schedule.

Although the selection committee could not complete selection from about 200 vendors participating in the tender as of yesterday, the EC secretary said they would give the work order by today.

Officials at the EC Secretariat and a number of vendors said it might take a few days after the Eid holidays to kick off the massive task.

“We have not got the work order yet. The Eid-ul-Fitr is ahead, workers will not be available for a few days, and it will be hard for us to complete the whole printing process as per the schedule,” said Abdul Khaleque Miah, proprietor of Rupa Art Press, one of the participants in the tender process.

Several vendors said it will not be possible to complete the printing task before December.

“The whole country is facing acute electricity crisis. How will we meet the deadline if it continues?” said printing press owners Abdul Wazed and Nasiruddin.

The vendors said they will need at least three weeks to complete the task of data entry of the updated voter list before going for printing the list that was completed in August.

Meanwhile, the EC Secretariat has cancelled holidays of all its officials from October 16 until completion of the next parliamentary election.

The field level election administration has already sent a tentative list of the polling stations to the EC Secretariat and the district election officials are now waiting for the EC Secretariat’s directives to prepare for the next parliamentary election.