The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission (EC) yesterday received the first consignment of transparent ballot boxes to be used for the first time in parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.

EC Joint Secretary Md Rafiqul Islam and Deputy Election Commissioner for Dhaka Division Biswas Lutfar Rahman have received about 36,000 ballot boxes out of some 2.40 lakh that reached the Inland Containers Depot (ICD) at Kamalapur in the city on September 16.

"Some 17,000 boxes have been sent to Narsinghdi, Shariatpur, Manikganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj and the remaining boxes will be sent today (Thursday) to other districts election offices," said Rafiqul Islam.

He said that some 237,500 boxes will arrive by ship by the next month and if necessary some others will be transported by air.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain told journalists at his office yesterday that one trainer from the Canadian Company would conduct training to 30 people to use the imported ballot boxes.

"The trainer will initially conduct a training programme for one hour with 30 people to teach them how to use the transparent ballot boxes," he said about the modality of the new exercise with voting.

He, however, mentioned that it will not be possible to use the transparent ballot boxes in the upazila polls on December 24 and 28.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is providing financial assistance to the Bangladesh government and United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) is procuring the ballot boxes.

The Economic Relations Division of the government and UNDP agreed on Tk 45.37 crore ' Transparent Ballot Boxes" project following consultations held with the political parties.