Voters enlisted after 2012 to get laminated ID cards

FE Team | Published: November 03, 2017 23:52:35

More than 11 million voters, who got registered after 2012, will receive laminated national ID cards instead of smart NIDs for casting ballots in the 11th general elections, the commission officials have said.
"Some complications related to production of smart cards" have led EC to make the decision on October 31, acting secretary of the commission Helaluddin Ahmed has told bdnews24.com.
This pool of young voters will play the major role in electing the next government, according to EC.
However, over a million citizens are yet to receive the national ID cards. The matter has been in limbo for over the last five years.
The EC led by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad had promised to issue laminated NIDs, but nothing was done so far.
Now the decision of distributing laminated NIDs comes from new CEC KM Nurul Huda in the backdrop of slow-pace distribution of smart NID cards.
After wrapping up the 12th meeting of the Nurul Huda-led commission, Helaluddin said: "The meeting discussed all aspects of the commission. The 11.8 million voters who got registered after 2012 will now be given laminated NIDs."
They will be given smart cards later, added the EC official.
"The disbursement of laminated cards will start soon," according to the official.
The commission started making a list of voters with their photos in 2008.
Currently, there are more than 101 million voters enlisted with EC. More than 1.3 million names, who have died in the meantime, will be taken off from the list after the latest survey, according to EC.
More than 2.5 million fresh voters will be enlisted in January and become eligible for voting in the next parliamentary polls slated at the end of next year.
Helaluddin said the smart card distribution that started in October last year would come to an end by the end of 2018.
"It may complete by June 2018 with some 3.5 million cards being printed per month, and they will reach 90 million citizens by December 2018."