Dhaka – The Election Commission (EC) is going to update its existing voter list with two major challenges making of women voters and preventing Rohingyas to be voters.The Commission sources said that including of women voters and preventing Rohingyas to be included in the list is always a big challenge for them as the women voters are not satisfactory compared to its counterpart and there are allegations of Rohingyas to be voters.
Keeping all these matters in mind, the EC is going to update its existing voter list with a target of including around 50 lakh new voters today as part of its seven point roadmap programme.
The full-commission including the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nurul Huda would inaugurate the programme at the Mymensingh Town Hall in the district on Tuesday, the EC sources said.
The EC sources said they have sorted out a number of reasons behind the decrease of women voters in the list like reluctance to collecting birth registration for fee, reluctance of the Hindu unmarried women to be voters in their parents houses, indifference of the illiterate unmarried girls to be voters, failure to show parents’ National Identity (NID) cards, the registration centres are far away from their houses, unfavorable weather, unwillingness to give photos under the excuse of religious restriction and lack of awareness.
The Commission said the Union Parishad members, Dofadar and Gram Police of respective areas can be including so that the number of women voters does not decrease extensively.
EC Secretary Muhammad Abdullah special measures have been taken for the inclusion of women in the voter list.
“We are taking the close assistance of the local women public representatives like vice-chairmen of District and Upazila Parishad, councillor of reserved seats of City Corporation and Municipality area and members of the reserved seats of Union Parishads as well as the elected women representatives of the constituencies,” he said.
“Officers and employees of different departments of the ministry of women and children affairs would assist here. Besides, various NGOs would assist as well,” he added.
About the prevention of foreigners including the Rohingyas, the Secretary said, “The Commission has identified 30 Upazilas as special areas including Bandarban, Rangamati and Cox’s Bazar districts so that no foreigner or Rohingya people can include into the voter list.”
He said a special committee would work in this 30 Upazilas with close monitoring.
The prospective voters of these areas have to show the NID cards of their parents, aunts and uncles to be listed in the voter list, he added.
The enumerators would visit door to door in order to collect information of the prospective voters from those who was born January 1, 2000, or earlier from 25 July to 9 August for their registration.
The commission will also include those persons who were excluded from the list during the previous update.
The Commission would complete the registration process in three phases with a time of 72 days.
The second phase of voter list updating will be started from September 16 to October 13 and the third phase will be started from October 14 to November 5.
The EC would then publish the draft voter list on 2 Jan 2018 and the final voter list would be published on 31 Jan 2018, as per the roadmap.
The printing of voter list with photos or without photos for the 300 constituencies would start in June 2018.
As per the roadmap, any convict under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order, 1972 and International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 is not allowed to become a voter. Besides, the name of the convict under the Act would be cancelled. – Staff Reporter
