The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The voter-listing process of 2008 is fabulous one and maintains international standard despite having some errors and missing voters, said two researchers at a press conference at a city hotel yesterday,

They disclosed this after a month-long survey on 'Monitoring Voter Listing Process and Focus Group Research' to evaluate the process and investigate possible causes of errors.

They selected three areas: Rajshahi City Corporation, Raozan Pourashava of Chittagong and Tahirpur Upazila of Sunamganj district for monitoring the voter listing and focus group analysis.

With the financial support of Department For International Development (DFID) of UK and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), the international consultants-Dr Owen Lippert and Dr Mohammad Yusuf conducted the survey.

The survey report says that most participants appreciated the presence of army, their help in orderly voter listing and recommended their presence during the election time.

"There is no doubt that the voter-listing process in 2008 is internationally standard. The estimated voting-age persons are some 6417 in RCC, 1925 in Raozan and 1451 in Tahirpur areas. "Some 0.0 percent in Rajshahi, 0.1 percent in Raozan and 0.3 percent in Tahirpur of error-names were found on the report," said Yusuf while reading out the survey report.

About the estimated missing from the voter rolls, he said scrutiny of the listed persons shows that names missing from the rolls are of 1.63 percent in Rajshahi, 2.24 percent in Raozan, while 1.33 percent in Tahirpur due to absence during listing and failing to be photographed. Describing the suggestion of FGD's participants, Dr Yusuf viewed that "NGOs and civil society cannot be trusted and they should not be involved in the preparation of the voter rolls anyway.