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Download PDF All very important persons (VIPs) will have to visit voter registration centres to register their names in the electoral roll with photographs as the Election Commission (EC) yesterday decided not to take any special measures this time for them.
According to the EC’s decision, VIPs including the president, chief adviser, chief justice, speaker and others will also have to visit voter registration centres in their respective areas to have their photographs taken for the voter list, officials at the EC Secretariat said.
The EC at an inter-ministerial meeting yesterday rejected informal proposals for treating VIPs in a special way to register them as voters.
“If VIPs visit voter registration centres in their respective areas to be listed as voters, other people will be encouraged to visit those,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda was quoted as saying at the meeting on preparation of voter list in Dhaka City Corporation area.
EC officials said the registration centres concerned would obtain timetable from the VIPs about their turning up at the centres and take necessary measures in this regard.
But according to the electoral roll ordinance 2007, the EC has initiated special measures for people who are in jail or in custody to register their names in the electoral roll. So, politicians including two former prime ministers–Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina– detained on graft charges will be listed as voters under special arrangements.
The EC Secretariat last month sent a letter to the home ministry urging it to take measures for taking photographs of detained persons for preparing the voter list, sources said.
It is not possible for people who are in jails to visit the registration centres. So, EC officials will visit jails to take their photographs for electoral roll, a senior EC official said.
But their original addresses will be recorded in the electoral roll, he added.
VOTER LISTING IN DCC AREA
“We have planned to start field level task for preparing voter list with photographs and national identity card in Dhaka City Corporation area on December 1, and it will continue till February 7,” Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters after the meeting at the EC Secretariat conference room.
It was pointed out at the meeting that at the initial stage, the field level task might face difficulties since annual examinations at all the schools are held in November-December. Enumerators and supervisors, who are teachers, will face problems to work for preparing voter list on full-time basis.
Besides, it will be difficult to set up voter registration centres at the schools due to the examinations.
Considering the facts, the EC asked the education ministry and education boards to try to ensure that the examinations are over in November or by the first week of December.
The EC will also sit with the mayor and ward commissioners of the DCC to discuss preparation of voter list.
Asked about the over due election to the DCC, Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said the EC will think about holding the polls once the voter list is ready.
District election offices have already prepared separate panels for recruiting enumerators and supervisors for preparing voter list.
As per the EC procedure, enumerators will first collect information about prospective voters in prescribed forms through door-to-door visits. They will then give the prospective voters timetable for visiting voter registration centres to have their photographs taken.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by representatives of the ministries of local government, home and education, army, DCC, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Ansar and VDP, education boards and directorates.
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