Ahead of the 12th national election, the Election Commission (EC) intends to invite applications from aspiring local election observer organizations.
The constitutional body, organizing the election, will issue a notification regarding this soon.
Although over a 100 prospective observer organizations have already been scrutinized, 68 local organizations have been provisionally selected.
However, given nearly 120 million voters in this election, the Election Commission felt that the current number of observer organizations is insufficient, prompting the move to increase their number.
Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Md Ahsan Habib Khan on Wednesday said that as the present commission is always committed to ensuring free, fair and credible elections, impartial observations by unbiased observers are being emphasized.
He mentioned that the Election Commission wanted a notable number of observers in the upcoming national election.
"I believe this is essential for transparency and earning the trust of the public. However, the number of eligible local observer organizations is currently less than before. The commission believes it is necessary to increase this number," he remarked.
Election Commission Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath revealed that, based on the commission's decision, a notice inviting new applications from observer organizations could be released on Thursday.
“In this case, a window of 15 to 30 days will be given for applications. Those who were previously omitted can reapply if interested,” he said.
After receiving the applications, a swift vetting and selection process will finalize the registration of the observer organizations, he added.
During the last 11th parliamentary election, 118 observer organizations were registered with the Election Commission.
The number had been in the hundreds for the ninth and tenth parliamentary elections as well. Now, this number has nearly halved.
Therefore, the Kazi Habibul Awal Commission made the decision to call for new applications.