The Election Commission (EC) has started its preparations for the next general elections with steps like, gathering field-level information including status of upazila and district-level manpower from the local administration.
It has planned to train up field-level election officials, who will be working during the next parliamentary polls while it also started to procure necessary equipment for the polls, both locally and internationally, said officials at the EC.
In addition, printing of the updated voters’ list will start this month at the Army Printing Press as per the EC decision. They will also receive some 40,000 transparent ballot boxes through UNDP next month.
In addition, the EC has also decided to disburse the necessary funds after gathering field-level information in order to avoid any difficulty in the next general elections.
According to EC officials, 50 Upazila Election Officers have been appointed in the vacant posts through the Public Service Commission (PSC) and they have already taken charges of their designated posts following the competition of their training at the Election Training Institute.
There are about 512 posts of upazila and thana election officers across the country. The district election officers and regional election officers at 64 districts have started taking preparations for holding the next national polls.
On July 11, the EC sent letters, signed by its Senior Assistant Secretary Md Abdul Momin Sarkar to the regional, district and upazila election offices seeking information on the overall situation and manpower within July 18.
EC Secretary Dr Mohammad Sadik said, “The EC is collecting information of field-level across the country and has already sent letters to all election offices across the country in this connection.
Meanwhile, the EC has has already finalised the demarcation of parliamentary seats and sent the Representation of People’s Order (RPO) to the law ministry for amendment. It has also prepared the voters’ list and it will take the final decision on giving party registrations by this month.
In the last parliamentary elections 35,217 polling centres were used and to cope with the increasing number of voters in the updated voters’ list, the EC has fixed around 44,000 polling centres this time around.
Accordingly, the EC is procuring the additional 40,000 ballot boxes for these centres through Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh (SEMB) project.
It is also acquiring other necessary tools for holding the general election like, the officials indelible ink, official seal, marking seal, brush seal, stump pad, ballot box seal and necessary number of forms. After finalising the candidacy, the EC will print the ballot papers.
The EC has also decided to print 92.20m voters’ list and 7m National Identity cards at the Army Printing Press beginning from the current month. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad confirmed the development last week.After scrutinising the voters’ list, the EC will send it to the field.
The CEC said, the EC is yet to fix the date of holding the next parliamentary elections but it will take place between October 2013 and January 2014.
According to the constitution, the next general election must be held between October 25 and January 24, 2014.
