Hermaphrodites now a third gender on voter list

The Election Commission (EC) has added hermaphrodites (Hijra) to the 'gender identity' section of the voter list four years after the group received its official recognition, reports bdnews24.com.

The EC has decided to amend the Voter List Act 2009 and the Voter List Regulations 2012 accordingly.

Voters will be able to pick the 'Hijra' gender identity alongside the 'male' and 'female' options from the coming update.

Currently, Bangladesh has over 100 million registered voters. National identity cards have been distributed to eligible voters since the start of photo voter list registration. Members of the Hijra community were previously able to register, but would be classified as 'male' or 'female' on the list.

On November 13, 2013 a cabinet meeting officially recognised the gender identity of hermaphrodites and approved a policy on the matter.

The EC then attempted to add the proposed Hijra option to the 2014 voter registration forms but were unable to do so because there had been no amendment to the Voter List Act and the Voter List Regulations.

The matter was raised during a meeting on amending the regulations at the EC Secretariat on Dec 27.