The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Election Commission Secretariate the other day gave an encouraging information about the progress of voter registration and voter list printing. The number of voters registered as on 13 June 2008 was 7.68 crore, which is 97 percent of the estimated voters of eight crore. The whole country has been divided into 523 voter registration units out of which data collection process has been completed from 432 units; work is going on in 80 locations while work is yet to start in 11 others. Printing of three copies of draft voter list and five copies of final voter list has progressed to some extent. Project officials hope the final voter list would be complete by October 2008. Sincere and tireless efforts of Bangladesh Army have helped the gigantic task to be accomplished within a year since its initiation in August last year.

A correct voter list is a prerequisite for holding fair and credible elections at different levels. Due to lack of a credible voter list, it was difficult to hold fair elections in the past. Elections based on such a list is expected to be free from irregularities. This database will be of other uses as well. It will serve as a source of information for issuing national identity card, which will help avoid lapses in different official works like issuing passports and opening bank accounts. Therefore, the list needs to be under a regular process of updating with necessary insertion and deletion of records. The database is expected to make identification of criminals and intruders from outside the country easy. The list reportedly contains about two percent mistakes. Regular updating would help correct those within a short period of time.