Voter registration rated as international standard

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The ongoing voter registration process is of international standard, though some voters’ names are missing on the list, says a survey funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

“It is going to be a list of quality no less than that of America or England,” said Dr Mohammed Yusuf, one of the consultants for the survey titled “Monitoring Voter Listing Process and Focus Group Research.”

The survey report was released at a press conference at a city hotel yesterday. The other consultant for the survey was Dr Owen Lippert.

Dr Yusuf and Dr Lippert prepared the report with samples from three areas in the country — Rajshahi City Corporation, Raozan Pourashava of Chittagong and Tahirpur upazila of Sunamganj district.

A total of 9,793 people took part in the survey.

The researchers found that 1.63 percent eligible voters in Rajshahi City Corporation, 2.24 percent in Raozan and 1.33 percent voters in Tahirpur were missing in the voter list.

Despite that, the voters’ list is of international standard from qualitative perspective, said Dr Yusuf at the press conference adding that they did not find any fraudulence in the voter registration process.

“Extent of error — 0.0 percent in Rajshahi, 0.1 percent in Raozan and 0.3 percent in Tahirpur are negligible and due to incidence of death after voter registration,” the survey report said.

The missing of voters in the list was due to absence of eligible voters during registration and failure to be photographed, it said, adding that this is expected to be addressed during the final updating of the voter rolls.

“The potential missing in the final voter roll one would anticipate being negligible, possibly less than a percent,” it said.

Among those who reported incorrect ID information, nearly two-thirds in Rajshahi, about one-fifth in Raozan and all in Tahirpur said that either the names of the ID card holders and/or names of parents were misspelled.

A small percentage of them reported that they had been waiting for delivery of cards.

To ensure a flawless list, the survey recommended vigorous publicity of registration schedule and follow-up schedule for those who were absent during the initial schedule of enumerators’ visit at home.

Involvement of union council or ward commissioner for publicity may prove useful to check missing of voters in the list, while appropriate time schedule for delivery of ID cards would be very helpful, it said.

The survey also suggested setting up a permanent office where persons missing initial or follow-up registration opportunity can go with proper identification and get registered. “This place may be kept open year round to facilitate updating of registration as an on-going process.”

Arrangements should be made for replacement of damaged, lost and stolen ID cards and a permanent registration place can take care of such requirements, it said.

Most participants in the survey appreciated the presence of the army and their help in orderly voter listing and recommended their presence during election time, it added.

“Preparation of error-free voter roll is the responsibility of Election Commission (EC). The participants were emphatic that the responsibility should stay with the EC and that political parties, NGOs and civil society cannot be trusted and they should not be involved in the preparation of the voter role in anyway,” the report said.

Explaining such attitude by the participants, Dr Owen Lippert said that they are very suspicious, as they had earlier seen that political leaders influence the voters’ registration process.

On whether the survey in three areas represent the national picture, he said it is not a national survey, but does give an idea of how things are going on around. “We can, however, learn from this,” Lippert added.

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