The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The Election Commission would conduct its voter-listing works in garment factory areas across the country only on holidays so that the apparel factory workers can enroll themselves in the voter list without hazards.

The decision was taken Monday at a meeting between the Commission and a delegation of Bangladesh Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

"The meeting decided that for the voter registration the Election Commission would be provided with a list mentioning which garment factories will remain closed when as their weekly holidays differ from one to another," BGMEA president Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Pervez, who led the four-member delegation, told reporters after the meeting.

Most of the 20 lakh garment factory workers of the country cannot register their names as voters since their owners are not allowing them leave for the voter registration work.

"Many of the garment workers even do not know that they need to enlist their names at their present addresses, not at the permanent ones," the BGMEA president told journalists.

Pervez went on: "We've urged the Election Commission to fill up necessary forms and take photographs going to each and every factory so that no worker is left out of the voter list. But the Election Commission has informed us that it won't be possible for lack of its manpower."

General secretary of Nari Udyag Kendra Masuda Khatun Shefali, who led a six-member NUK delegation that accompanied the BGMEA delegation, told the reporters that there are over 22.59 lakh garment workers in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Savar, Tongi, Gazipur and Chittagong.

Of them, she said, only 1,76,385 have so far been able to be enlisted in the voter list as per the information NUK has received.

"So, most of the garment workers are being left out of the voter list… When the CEC was apprised about the matter at the meeting, he assured that the Election Commission will enroll all the workers in the list," Shefali said.