Citizens’ rights body Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN) has raised question about the accuracy of the updated voter list published by the Election Commission last year and demanded that a mechanism be introduced to verify the list by an independent third party.
SHUJAN, a civil society organisation working for establishing good governance, criticised the latest decision to register teenagers aged 15-17 and for not carrying out visible campaigns before launching the voter list update yesterday.
It alleged that the EC had violated laws by conducting the update process in July instead of January.
Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club, Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of the organisation, also questioned the decreasing number of female voters in the updated list.
Badiul said they had concerns over the voter list update initiative since there had been some inconsistencies in the last few years. “The voter list prepared in 2008 was something for us to feel proud of...”
He said female voters outnumbered male in the 2008 list by 14.14 lakh (gender-gap +1.74%). But after the 2013 update, it was found that female voters were 2.91 lakh less than the male count.
“Now the gender-gap has reached around -12%. Because of this huge gap, more women will not be able to caste their voting rights. The people have the right to seek explanation, and we hope that the Election Commission clarify the matter,” Badiul said adding that the field-level officials had not visited door-to-door.
SHUJAN claims that such “gender-gap” is not natural.
Eminent columnist and local government expert Tofail Ahmed suggested that the EC recheck the voter lists of some districts where the gender-gap is huge.
Columnist Syed Abul Moksud said that fair election could not be expected from the incumbent EC. Different polls under this commission witnessed huge vote rigging and ballot box stuffing.
“Elections could be fairer even if those were held under Chhatra League or Jubo League, rather than this Election Commission,” he said.
SHUJAN President M Hafizuddin Khan and former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain also spoke at the function.