Election Commission in the final stage of election preparations
The Election Commission (EC) is currently in the final stages of preparations ahead of the 13th National Assembly elections. Their overall preparations for the elections will be completed only after the delimitation of boundaries and updating of the voter list. After that, the EC’s campaign will begin when the government announces the date and time.
According to election analysts, the most important things needed before the National Assembly elections are – preparing an updated and accurate voter list, delimitation of boundaries, registration of political parties, improvement of the law and order situation, training of election officials, etc. One of the main tasks is completing the updated voter list, which the EC has almost completed. It is expected that all the stages of preparation will be completed by June. After that, the EC will take the field to organize the elections whenever the government wants.
The chief advisor to the interim government has already suggested that the elections could be held by December this year. The Election Commission is also preparing accordingly. If the elections are organized in December, the EC will announce the schedule in October.
There is a kind of haze in the political arena regarding the elections as the government has not announced a specific date. Several political parties, including BNP, have been demanding elections as soon as possible. BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed also said yesterday – as time goes by, we feel that some tricks are being devised to further prolong the path to democracy. We urge everyone concerned to refrain from that.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said yesterday that history bears witness that by doing election engineering and vote terror, one can apparently win. But in the end, it is not good for the country or the party. Therefore, he urged people not to try election engineering and vote terror to win the elections. At a discussion meeting organized by the Election Commission yesterday on the occasion of National Voters’ Day, the CEC also said that people have not been able to vote for so long. Now is the opportunity to establish the right to vote.
Election Commissioner Begum Tamida Ahmed said in the meeting, “I have proposed to organize the vote by setting up ballot boxes in open fields. Although this is my personal opinion. I believe that it will be helpful in proving the transparency of the vote. However, we have to be responsible in this regard first.”
Election Commissioner Brigadier Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah (Retd.) said, updating the voter list is an ongoing process. In the past few days, many people could not vote for various reasons. Or some did not vote due to reluctance. In the fragile electoral situation, a real possibility of democracy has been created. Many people’s interest in voting has increased. Therefore, another round of new voter lists will be published by June 30. He said, this year’s Voter’s Day is very significant, so that no one can prepare an opaque or fake voter list. He also said that the commission does not want to see night voting.
At the event, the CEC handed over smart national identity cards to 13 people injured in the July coup who are undergoing treatment at Pangu Hospital and the National Institute of Ophthalmology. Earlier, a procession was taken out on various roads on the occasion of Voters’ Day.
Meanwhile, EC officials said that on March 2, 2024, the total number of voters in the country was 121,850,160. At the end of that year, 1833,352 more voters were added. In addition, 48,762 more were added through the verification and selection of the Revising Authority. The total number of voters currently stands at 123,732,274. Of these, 63,361,615 are men. The number of female voters is 63,69,665 and the number of transgenders is 994. Like every time, the Election Commission has published the updated voter list on National Voters’ Day. It shows that the number of voters has increased by 1.54 percent in a year.
Incidentally, the voter list update process began on January 20, ahead of the 13th National Parliament elections. Information on more than 5 million people has already been collected. The final voter turnout for the 13th parliamentary election will be determined by June, after adding new voters and excluding those who have died.
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