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Download PDF The Canadian government has agreed in principle to provide Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) with around two lakh transparent ballot boxes — free of cost for the upcoming parliamentary election.
Meanwhile, some of the 75.25 lakh registered voters who also received their temporary national identity cards, complained about their cards having personal information errors on them, prompting the EC to say that the errors are minor and will not hamper vote casting.
Asked about the progress in procuring the transparent ballot boxes, EC Secretary Humayun Kabir told The Daily Star yesterday, “We hope to get a final confirmation from the Canadian government in a week regarding getting the transparent ballot boxes as a grant from them.”
The negotiation with the Canadian government through the Canadian high commission in Dhaka regarding the grant is now at the final stage, EC sources said.
“We are now sure about getting the transparent ballot boxes from the Canadian government,” a senior EC official said.
The EC Secretariat will prepare a project document for signing a grant agreement with the Canadian government for the ballot boxes after receiving the final confirmation, the sources added.
The EC earlier estimated the cost of purchasing the transparent ballot boxes at around Tk 30 crore.
Senior EC officials are likely to sit in a meeting in a couple of days to discuss the next steps for procuring the free transparent ballot boxes.
They said if everything goes according to the EC’s plan, the ballot boxes will be in the commission’s hands within October for the stalled ninth parliamentary election, expected to be held by the year end.
In case of a failure to procure the free transparent ballot boxes, the EC will use traditional ballot boxes made of steel, an adequate number of which the commission has in its stock.
In a bid to ensure transparency in the upcoming ninth parliamentary poll, holding of which has now stalled ninth parliamentary election, expected to be held by the year end.
In case of a failure to procure the free transparent ballot boxes, the EC will use traditional ballot boxes made of steel, an adequate number of which the commission has in its stock.
In a bid to ensure transparency in the upcoming ninth parliamentary poll, holding of which has now become the national craving, the EC opened talks with the Canadian government in February for procuring those for free.
As most political parties, which participated in the electoral reform talks with the EC, demanded use of transparent ballot boxes in the next parliamentary election, the commission considered the matter seriously.
The EC also visited Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory to see whether it is possible to manufacture transparent ballot boxes there.
Later, the commission started searching for options to procure the boxes either from Canada or Denmark, as the two countries share a reputation of manufacturing high quality transparent ballot boxes.
In the meantime, the EC got assurance from the Canadian high commissioner in Dhaka that the commission could try to procure the transparent ballot boxes from the Canadian government — free of cost, with assistance from the high commission, EC officials said.
NATIONAL IDENTIY CARDS
Till April 5, a total of 5.42 crore voters were registered with their photographs and finger prints taken, while 75.25 lakh of them also received their temporary national identity cards simultaneously.
But, some of the registered voters with national identity cards complained that there are many information errors on the cards. They fear their voter registration must also have information errors since the IDs and the voter list both are being prepared on the basis of same set of information.
When Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda’s attention was drawn to the matter on several occasions, he said the errors on the national ID cards can be corrected in future. The errors on the national ID cards will in no way prevent a voter from casting his or her vote in the next parliamentary election, the CEC asserted.
Asked about the complaints of errors on the cards, EC secretary Humayun Kabir yesterday said the errors, if there is any, can be corrected later. At this stage, it might not be possible to correct the errors right away since field level election officials are busy with preparing the national voter list with photographs, the secretary added.
The home ministry will have jurisdiction to oversee issuance of national identity cards after the government promulgates a respective law.
“A permanent registration authority will be set up under the proposed law to issue national identity cards. So once the registration authority is established, it will be able to correct the errors taking adequate time,” Humayun Kabir said adding, “One should not worry about minor errors on his or her national identity card.”
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