Some 0.5 million people in Bangladesh enclaves have been deprived of being voters for the last 24 years - meaning they have missed out on the advent of democracy in the country that followed the overthrow of the Ershad regime in the dying days of 1990, reports UNB.
The flagrant denial of their franchise rights is set to continue as well as it has emerged that the enclave-dwellers cannot be registered as fresh voters in the current round of the voter-list updating either.
The Election Commission (EC) had been carrying out a campaign to update the country's electoral rolls since May 15, but the enclave population had not been part of the process.
This exclusion will continue until the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between Bangladesh and India is ratified, paving the way for the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in Indian territory and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.
Long-ratified by Dhaka, the bill for Indian ratification now sits in the Indian parliament, after being introduced by the last Congress-led UPA government in the closing stage of their term before their defeat by the incumbent BJP-led NDA coalition.
The Bangladeshi enclave population was last included in the voter list in 1990. After that no initiative was taken to register voters in the enclaves (other than inhabitants of Dahagram and Angorpota), resulting in some five lakh otherwise eligible members of the electorate being deprived of the right to exercising their franchise for the last 24 years.
People in enclaves missing out on democracy
FE Team | Published: August 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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