EC begins updating electoral roll

Enumerators appointed by the Election Commission yesterday started going door-to-door in 189 upazilas to collect data of citizens to update the electoral roll.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad inaugurated the event at a programme at Shilpakala Academy in Narsingdi.

For the first time ever, the commission has decided to collect data of citizens aged 15 and above, although only those who are 18 and above will be included in the electoral roll.

Data of citizens below 18 would be collected in advance to process their personal information, which would be used to prepare national identity (NID) cards, said EC officials.

At the inauguration function, the CEC directed the enumerators to be careful when collecting data, reports our Narsingdi correspondent.  

Information will be collected in 189 upazilas in the first phase, 184 upazilas in the second phase and 141 upazilas in the last phase.

The enumerators will collect data till August 9 in the first phase. The second phase will start on August 16 and the third phase on September 7. 

A total of 50,000 enumerators will work to complete the task.

SHUJAN PRESS CONFERENCE

Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (SHUJAN) has raised questions about the accuracy of the voter list as the number of female voters is lower than male voters.

In 2013, the total number of voters was over 9.19 crore. Of them, male voters were over 4.61 crores and female voters over 4.58 lakh. In 2014, the total number of voters rose to over 9.61 crores. Of them, male voters were over 4.84 crores and female voters over 4.77 crores.

Such a "gender gap" in voter list remains and it can definitely raise questions about the accuracy of the voter list, claim SHUJAN, a civil society organisation.

The organisation made the claim at a press conference at Jatiya Press Club in the capital yesterday.   

Addressing the function, Syed Abul Maksud criticised the role of EC and said fair election cannot be expected from the incumbent EC.