Moreover, the efforts of about three lakh-strong manpower for four months in preparing the list have virtually turned futile exercises mainly due to the Chief Election Commissioner's (CEC) stubborn attitude in going for a fresh electoral roll ignoring the January 4 HC directives.

Officials at the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat yesterday said the EC now has to start preparing a voter list based on the existing one. Implementation of the HC directives will involve fresh expenditures and preparations, they pointed out.

The SC yesterday rejected the EC's appeal against the HC's directives but the two election commissioners -- Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and SM Zakaria -- expressed their confusion about the spirit of the SC judgement.

Both of them declined to say if the ongoing process of preparing voter list has been stopped after rejection of the EC's appeal.

Replying to questions from reporters, Justice Mahfuz said, "I don't yet know the judgement exactly. I heard different versions of it."

Zakaria said, "We are waiting for copy of the judgement to know the details."

CEC Justice MA Aziz declined to talk to the media.

He had earlier questioned the jurisdiction of the HC to issue such directives to the EC regarding voter list.

Officials at the EC Secretariat and field level also appeared confused yesterday as the EC was yet to give them any directives in the changed context. But field level work on resolving disputes concerning the draft voter list almost came to a halt.

"We are waiting for further directives about the next course of action," said a senior official involved in the process.

Mahfuz and Zakaria said they will decide the next step after receiving certified copy of the verdict. Both said their lawyer did not inform them about it.

The CEC however held a meeting with them at his office.

The EC Secretariat in August last sent a budget of Tk146 crore to the government and started the process of making a voter list after getting Tk 60 crore in the first instalment.

The secretariat spent most of the money for printing a large number of manuals, voter registration forms and training programmes for manpower recruited for the task.

It already allocated Tk 27 crore for remuneration of the manpower and will need another Tk 27 crore if it is to pay them in full, officials said.

A total of 2,16,722 enumerators and 55, 684 supervisors, who started work on the fresh voter list on January 1, will have to be paid for their four months' work.

In 2000, the EC Secretariat spent over Tk 56 crore in remuneration of enumerators and supervisors.

EC MOVED AGAINST THE COURT
The HC had asked the EC to revise the existing voter list but the CEC continued the process of preparing the fresh voter list, ignoring the views of the two then election commissioners-- M Munsef Ali and AK Mohammad Ali-- who wanted implementation of the court directives.

While Munsef and Mohammad were putting pressure on the CEC to convene the EC's meeting to implement the court directives, the CEC kept off his office and finally came to office after the appointment of two more election commissioners to provide him majority in the EC.

The newly appointed election commissioners-- Mahfuz and Zakaria-- supported the CEC in preparing the fresh voter list. The CEC then convened the EC meeting on January 29 and Mahfuz, Zakaria and he himself favoured filing an appeal against the HC directives. Munsef and Mohammad opposed it.

The EC then filed the appeal.
On the HC directives, Aziz , a sitting judge of the SC, told reporters on January 31, "Observations cannot be made without issuing any rule ... I have never witnessed any such observations neither in my 24-year career as a practising lawyer nor in the 10 years as a judge of the Supreme Court."