Bangladesh News

The new national voter list is likely to be ready in September, a month ahead of the schedule, as the printing process of the list has recently been expedited.

However, possibility of the parliamentary poll being held before the announced timeframe of the third week of December is slim, even if the voter list is ready earlier than the schedule, since both the government and the Election Commission (EC) are now preparing to hold upazila elections before the general election, sources in the government administration said.

Earlier, the chief election commissioner however said the EC preferred to hold the upazila elections and the parliamentary election simultaneously, with the commission looking into the feasibility of the idea.

If everything goes smoothly according to the plan, the entire voter list with photographs might be ready by the middle of September, officials engaged in preparing the voter list said.

Election Commissioner Birg Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said the EC is highly satisfied with the progress of voter listing. “But at this moment, we prefer not to say that the job will be completed earlier than the stipulated timeframe,” Sakhawat said.

He said they prefer to propagate that the electoral roll will be ready within October, the deadline for the completion of the job stipulated in the electoral roadmap announced by the EC on July 15 last year.

If the voter list is ready by September, the commission might begin holding the long over due polls to upazila parishads in October, if the commission then find the environment conducive to holding the polls, as major political parties have been vehemently opposing holding of the upazila polls before the parliamentary election.

However, the EC has yet to announce when the polls to 482 upazila parishads will be held, but it nonetheless directed its officials to begin preparations for holding the polls, which had last been held in 1990.

Asked whether holding of upazila elections will begin earlier than the tentative timeframe stipulated in the roadmap, Election Commissioner Sakhawat said they are pondering on the matter.

“Wait and see,” he replied to a query about the EC’s electoral roadmap which announced holding of the upazila polls between November and December. He however hinted that the upazila elections might be held in phases.

The Bangladesh Army, which has been working relentlessly to have the national voter list ready on time, already started printing five copies of each area wise final voter list for the stalled ninth parliamentary election, sources said.

But the EC recently asked the army to make additional five copies of each area wise final list for the upazila elections.

“Now the printing job has almost doubled. But we are confident that we will be able to finish the job in September, if everything goes smoothly,” a senior official, working in the voter listing project, told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

The printing job could have been completed more quickly had the EC not wanted additional five copies of each area wise list, the official added.

Currently, area wise voter lists are being printed at eight places including the central voter list preparation monitoring room set up at the army headquarters in the capital, using five hundred printers. Another 20 printers with high production capacities will be added for the job by the middle of June, the sources added.

“Once the additional 20 printers start churning out prints, the job will be expedited much more. Then, we will be able to say with more certainty when the final national voter list will be ready,” an official engaged in the voter listing project said.

CURRENT STATE OF PRINTING
According to a progress report prepared by the Project for Preparing Electoral Roll with Photographs and Facilitating the Issuance of National Identity Cards, printing of area wise draft voter lists for 217 areas out of a total of 523, were completed till June 1, which is 41 percent of the job.

Printing of draft voter lists for another 22 areas are now going on, sources said quoting from the progress report.

The printed area wise draft voter lists have a total of 3.40 crore voters recorded. On area wise completion of printing draft lists, local election offices already started publishing the drafts, seeking claims and objections from the people for finalising those in line with the electoral rolls rules.

According to the rules, since publication of a draft voter list a maximum of 30 days are required to have a final voter list for an electoral area ready, including time for settlements of claims and disputes.

According to the progress report, final voter lists for 58 areas were printed till June 1 containing the details of 87.94 lakh voters, which is 11 percent of the job, while printing of final voter lists for some other areas are currently going on.

About the progress in field level voter registration, the report said a total of 7.37 crore voters were registered with their photographs taken till May 30, which is 92 percent of the job, estimating that the total number of voters will not exceed 8 crore. Field level job of voter listing is set to be completed by the end of June, according to the EC sources.