The voter list updating process began across the country yesterday. In the first phase, data of possible voters in 189 upazilas and thanas will be collected.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad inaugurated the three-phase data collection programme at Shilpakala Academy in Narsingdi yesterday morning. The data will be collected from a total of 514 upazlias and thanas covering the entire country.
In his inauguration speech he urged people to cooperate with enumerators and provide authentic information during the door-to-door data collection.
“If people cooperate and provide authentic information, it will be easy to prepare a faultless database. If any voter cannot register during the door-to-door data collection, they can register later,” he said.
He said work is in progress with the help of upgraded technology to create a faultless database. It will be easy to detect fake or duplicate voters with the new technology. As duplication is a punishable offense, the duplicate voters, if found, will be brought under law.
The CEC also said that the commission will start distributing smart national identity (NID) cards with 46 information among some 10 crore voters soon.
“We think it will not be possible to duplicate NID cards if the smart cards are provided.”
With 2.5% growth in the country’s existing 9.62 crore voters, the Election Commission (EC) estimates that some 24 lakh fresh voters will emerge in 2016, and 48 lakh more in 2017 and 2018 following the data collection.
Some 61,000 people including 50,000 enumerators and 10,000 supervisors are needed for the three-phase data collection work under 5,400 voter registration centres in 4650 union parishads, 320 municipalities, 12 cantonment boards and 439 wards of 11 city corporations across the country.
According to the EC, enumerators will collect data of citizens born on or before January 1, 2000 throughout the country till September 22 this year.
From the collected data, only those who were born on or before January 1, 1998 will be registered as voters in 2016. The remaining people will be registered as voters in 2017 and 2018.
Besides, names of dead voters will be erased from the database.
According to the EC, in the first phase data will be collected from 189 upazilas and thanas from July 25-August 9. In the second phase, running from August 16 to 30, data from 184 upazilas and thanas will be collected. Data from 141 upazilas and thanas will be collected from September 7 to 22 in the third phase.
To be a registered voter, eligible citizens will need to provide birth certificate, land deed (if any), education certificate (if any), receipt of house rent or copies of utility bills, passport (if any), NID number of father, mother, or spouse.
The eligible people can also provide their data through online registration this year.
Photographs and fingerprints of the nationals born on or before January 1, 1998 will be taken in three phases from August 11 to October 20 through the voter registration centres.
The photographs and fingerprints of the remaining citizens will be taken in three phases from October 22 to February 10 next year.
The EC would make the draft updated voter list public on January 2 and receive complaints regarding the update. After disposing off complaints, the commission would publish the final updated voter list on January 31 next year.
The schedule of data collection of possible voters is available on the EC’s website: www.ecs.gov.bd
According to section 11 of the Voter List Act 2009, the Election Commission shall update the countrywide electoral rolls during January 2-31 every year. The voter list was last updated in 2014.