Election by year-end

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The Election Commission (EC) yesterday assured President Iajuddin Ahmed of holding the long-stalled ninth parliamentary election by this year-end.

Meanwhile, sources in the EC said the commission expects the voter list to be ready by early October, three weeks ahead of schedule.

The field level task of voter listing will be completed by the end June or first week of July while the final roll with photographs will be ready by the end of September or first week of October.

Talking to reporters at the EC Secretariat on return from the Bangabhaban, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said, “The president enquired if it is possible to hold the parliamentary election by December. We assured him the polls will be held as per the roadmap.”

The two other election commissioners—Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussainaccompanied him at the meeting with Iajuddin.

The polls chief told the president that they are confident of having a complete electoral roll by October since 83 percent of the voter registration is already done.

As per the electoral roadmap announced on July 15 last year, the voter list should be ready by October so the election could be held before the end of this year.

Names of 6.53 crore people have been placed on the electoral roll as of May 5. Earlier on February 27, the commission reached the halfway stage of voter listing by registering four crore people as electors. It means over one and a half crore have been listed as voters in the last 67 days.

The CEC yesterday said they are looking to wrap up registration of seven crore voters by May 17, getting 88 percent of the job done. Then another one crore will be registered within June.

He, however, said the commission would take a few more days to come up with specific dates regarding the polls.

As per EC’s estimate, the number of voters this time will not exceed eight crore mark. It was 9.33 crore on the 2006 voter list, which was at the end scrapped for massive duplications and errors.

The EC has started publishing draft voter lists for many areas on completion of the field level task. It is now seeking complaints and claims from those registered or left out. Even the printing of final rolls for some areas is already underway.

The CEC said they have briefed Iajuddin about other preparations as well.

He added that a team of experts from the commission gave the president a PowerPoint presentation to show the way they have done the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies.

“The president is quite satisfied with our preparations for the parliamentary polls,” Huda observed.

Later in the afternoon, an inter-ministerial meeting was held at the EC Secretariat where the EC discussed with representatives of different ministries its proposals for electoral reforms.

The EC delegation’s visit to the Bangabhaban, the official residence and workplace of the president, took place a day after the chief adviser met the president and discussed several crucial issues including the national election.

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