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Download PDF Just days before the commencement of the field level work of preparing the voter list with photographs, the Election Commission (EC) is now searching for options to avoid a conflict with a Supreme Court (SC) directive regarding the electoral roll.
The SC in the last one year declared null and void two voter lists, which had been prepared without complying with electoral laws and court directives.
The present EC decided to prepare a voter list with photographs afresh but the SC had asked the main election office several times to update the voter list prepared in 2000.
Amid such a situation the current EC, which was reconstituted on February 4, is now re-examining the existing electoral rolls ordinance and the court directives regarding the voter list, although it had decided to start the field level work in early August.
Sources said the EC in the last two days held hectic meetings to review the proposals for amending the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982, which had been approved in principle by the council of advisers to the caretaker government on July 21.
On Thursday, the EC also consulted with Justice Quddus Chowdhury about the matter, whose expertise in preparing drafts for all kinds of laws is well regarded.
“We are seriously examining the existing laws and the Supreme Court’s directive to avoid any conflict with it regarding the voter list,” Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said the EC is moving to amend the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982 for preparing the voter list with photographs in such a way that it will not come in conflict with the court’s directive.
Asked what measures the EC will adopt to avoid a conflict with the court directive, the election commissioner said, “Just wait for a couple of days and you will know.”
He however said the court issued the directive based on the existing electoral rolls ordinance. “We are going to change the existing ordinance eliminating the bar on preparing the voter list with photographs,” he added.
Sohul said there is no scope for taking the voter list of 2000 into consideration in preparing the voter list with photographs, which will be the first of its kind.
Asked whether the law ministry sent back the proposals for amending the electoral rolls ordinance with some queries, the election commissioner said the ministry asked them to change the language of the proposals to Bangla.
Sources in the EC Secretariat however said the ministry sought clarifications on some points too, and the commission is now preparing the answers.
“We will send those to the ministry in a couple of days. We hope, an ordinance will be promulgated in a week to amend the electoral rolls ordinance,” a senior official in the EC Secretariat said.
If the process takes a week, the field level work of preparing a voter list with photographs for Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) area is unlikely to begin on August 5, the official tentative date for launching the task, although distribution of voter registration forms started in the RCC area yesterday.
The EC also planned to begin the field level work of voter listing in Khulna City Corporation and eight municipality areas by mid-August. Sources in the EC Secretariat said the municipalities are — Bogra, Rangpur, Comilla, Savar, Mymensingh, Sitakunda, Rauzan and Jessore.
Asked whether the ongoing flood situation in the country will create any problem for having the voter list ready in October next year in line with the already announced electoral roadmap, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said they prepared the roadmap keeping in mind possible flood situations, the Ramadan and the Eid vacations.
COURT’S DIRECTIVES
Adjudicating two writ petitions on voter lists, the High Court (HC) on January 4, 2006 asked the EC to update the voter list prepared in 2000.
The erstwhile EC led by Justice MA Aziz however did not comply with the court’s directive and prepared a fresh voter list instead by filing an appeal against the HC directive. The then commission also published a draft of the fresh voter list.
The Appellate Division of the SC on May 23 of last year declared the draft voter list null and void asking the EC to comply with the HC directive.
Then the EC updated the voter list prepared in 2000, but widespread allegations that the commission did not properly followed the directive, plagued it.
In response to another writ petition, the HC on March 27 this year declared null and void the updated voter list published ahead of the now stalled ninth parliamentary election, ordering the EC to update the electoral roll in compliance with the SC directive, relevant election rules, and the constitution.
The court order also directed the EC to introduce transparent ballot boxes and voter ID cards for free, fair and credible elections in the future. The EC however did not appeal against that directive.
Now the EC has no plan to prepare voter ID cards, rather it will issue national ID cards. The chief election commissioner (CEC) on Thursday also brushed aside the possibility of introducing transparent ballot boxes in the upcoming national election.
Officials in the EC Secretariat said the commission will soon clarify the reasons for not being able to comply with the court’s directives thoroughly in the process of preparing the voter list with photographs for the upcoming election.
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