The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

There is nothing to be disappointed for those who could not become voters now, since anyone can become a voter even on the day before the parliamentary election is held.

"The Election Commission wants everyone to be enlisted in the voter list," Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hussain told reporters at his office this (Sunday) afternoon.

About the left out voters, he said there would be a server (stored with voter's particulars) in each thana or upazila.

So, even on the day before election, people could be enlisted in the voter list by contacting the election officials of concerned area, Sakhawat said.

He informed that 1,66,00,617 voters were enlisted in the list till December 17 across the country and 25 percent task of the photo voter list project would be completed by the first week of January 2008.

"We started the task of preparing voter list aiming to enlist nine crore voters. But after starting the task, we are observing that this time, the number of total voters across the country will be less that eight crore," said the election commissioner.

Voter listing has been completed at 47 places and is now on at 82 places in the country, he said, adding that from January 1, 2008, the task would start in 183 upazilas in phases.

"The current progress of voter-listing task is highly satisfactory… it will gather more speed and the task may be completed much earlier than the timeline mentioned in election roadmap," Sakhawat said.

He declined to mention any specific timeline when asked how earlier the task would be completed.

"Everyone will see when it will be complete… how much earlier the entire task will be finished depends on the completion of voter list in Dhaka City Corporation. So, the Election Commission is stressing more on the task of Dhaka," the Election Commissioner said.

About the progress of voter listing in Dhaka, he said photograph and fingerprint of 12,38,627 voters have been taken and particulars of around 20 lakh others have been collected so far.

"Meanwhile, voter-listing has been fully completed in 14 out of 90 wards of Dhaka city. Moreover, the task is going on in 27 out of 28 metropolitan thanas," Sakhawat said, adding that the task would start in the remaining Gulshan thana in January next year.

The voter-listing task of DCC would resume on December 26 since the seasonal holidays for the officials involved in the task have been extended till December 25, he said and expected the voter listing task to be completed by January 31 in Dhaka as announced earlier.