The Election Commission (EC) yesterday received the first consignment of transparent ballot boxes and soon started sending those to some district election offices in Dhaka division.
Around 36,000 ballot boxes of the latest brand, out of some 2.40 lakh sought for a massive voting fray in a new context, reached the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kamalapur in the capital yesterday.
These imports are going to be used–for the first time in Bangladesh–for polling in the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18, closely followed by upazila polls on December 24 and 28.
EC Joint Secretary Md Rafiqul Islam and Deputy Election Commissioner for Dhaka Division Biswas Lutfar Rahman received the consignment on behalf of the commission in the morning. And, in no time, the EC officials began sending 17,000 boxes to the election offices.
EC sources said these transparent ballot boxes are being brought from abroad by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), under a recipe meant for the country’s democratic development.
The UN agency was also involved in the preparation of the new digitised photo voter list under a reform scheme undertaken following the past crisis over the issues of general election that was eventually cancelled in January last year.
Rafiqul Islam said the remaining ballot boxes will arrive by October 30.
Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhwat Hossain yesterday told reporters that one trainer from Canada would conduct a training programme for one hour with 30 people to teach them how to use the transparent ballot boxes.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Economy, Bangladesh News, Daily Bangladesh News
