Formal start of voter listing to be delayed for floods

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The Election Commission (EC) expects that the requisite new law for preparing a fresh voter list with photographs would be effective on the first or second day of the coming week through promulgation of Presidential Ordinance, reports UNB.
Meanwhile, the main task of voter listing that was to formally start from August 05 from Rajshahi City Corporation area is going to be delayed due to the floods across the country. However, field-level groundwork in the area has already begun unofficially.
"The new law will be introduced as Voter List Ordinance 2007," Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters at his office Thursday afternoon.
There is no provision of taking photograph for voter list in the existing Voter Rolls Ordinance 1982, he said, adding that the EC interpolated the new technological issue of photograph keeping the ordinance alike.
"The ordinance of 1982 will lose its effectiveness once the government promulgates an ordinance regarding the new law," Sakhawat said.
Recently, the EC asked the government to repeal the existing Electoral Rolls Ordinance to dispel fears of legal controversy over the voter listing, retreating from its earlier stance on amending the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982.
"The task of voter list in Rajshahi may formally start on August 08 or 10… It will start on August 20 or 21 in Khulna and eight other municipalities," he said.
The municipalities are: Comilla, Mymensingh, Jessore, Bogra, Savar, Sitaku-nda, Raujan and Rangpur.
Asked what if anyone declined to be photographed, the Election Commissioner said there is no clear provision regarding this.
"Everyone's data, with and without photograph, will be collected… The decision as to whether people without photograph can be voters will be taken after getting the percentage of taking photograph."
The Chief Adviser (CA) has canceled his schedule for formally inaugurating the national task of voter list in Rajshahi on August 05, Sakhawat said, adding that the CA, coming back from Kurigram, has said the country's flood situation is his priority now.
The EC wants to formally start the task of voter list in a "festive mood" across the country so that the news comes in the media, the Election Commissioner said. "But, at present, the flood programme should get priority… The government also wants that… The entire administration, including the army, is now engaged in tackling the floods."
The army is providing its technical support to the task of preparing voter list in Rajshahi and the countrywide task would be supervised directly by them.
Asked if the flooding calamity would affect the voter-list programme, Sakha-wat replied in the negative. He said they are not going to the flood-affected areas. "Still it will have some influence over concerned administrative tasks."
The Election Commission has declared a timeline to complete local to national elections by the end of next year by compiling and completing the voter list. Local-government elections are to start next January based on voter lists done in specific areas.