EC acts to keep foreigners out

The task of updating the voter list with photographs will start from August throughout the country, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said Thursday, reports UNB. Talking to reporters at the Election Commission Secretariat, he said before updating the voter list, pilot projects would be conducted in four different locations in the country from the second week of July. He said the people who will exceed 18 years of age by the time of the 10th parliamentary elections due in 2013 would be included in the draft voter list. bdnews24.com adds: The commission's Deputy Secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed told the news agency that a letter was sent to the home ministry requesting information on areas where foreigners and Rohingyas might trespass into Bangladesh. In 2009, when the voters' roll was being updated, some 50,000 Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts, and 10 people, supposedly ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) members were identified as listed voters in Moulvibazar. Mihir said, "They enlisted themselves so that they could get the national ID. But they were identified and excluded from the list." "Now we are taking the initiative to prevent this from happening again," he added. Director of the electoral roll preparation Brig Gen Akhtaruzzaman Siddique told the news agency that the experience of the pilot project would help minimise the past errors.