But, when it begins, the task will see no funds for purchasing some necessary materials as the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat remains rigid about preparing the budget for the voter list updating task after completing the recruitment.

"We will prepare the budget for the task after the recruitment," Abdur Rashid Sarkar, secretary of EC Secretariat, told reporters yesterday at his office.

Many election officers feared that the field level task might be hampered due to lack of funds as the EC Secretariat will have to wait for some days after sending the budget to the finance ministry.

A number of district election officers said they will face difficulty as some materials to begin the field level task have to be purchased.

Meanwhile, the assistant registration officers who spent money from their pockets during work for preparation of the controversial fresh voter list have not yet been paid the dues although the EC Secretariat had received a significant amount of its Tk 146 crore budget for the task.

These officers expressed frustration over doing the task again as the EC Secretariat has not cleared their earlier remunerations.

At an EC meeting on Thursday, a number of deputy commissioners suggested the EC to increase and specify the amount of remuneration before beginning the voter list updating task.

The district election officers who were recruited as registration officers for preparing the fresh voter rolls have been directed to complete the recruitment of the assistant officers by July 20.

But schoolteachers who were not paid their due remuneration for the task of preparing the fresh voter list have expressed their dissatisfaction and unwillingness for carrying out the task again.

Considering the ongoing strike enforced by the non-government schoolteachers, the EC Secretariat directed the registration officers to recruit the field level officials of Family Planning Directorate, agriculture ministry and the Bangladesh Krishi Bank for the task.

Abdur Rashid Sarkar said the recruitment is going on and he has not received any information on problems in the recruitment.

Meanwhile, the EC procedure of updating the voter list at the election offices still continues officially although people are not participating in it.

The EC Secretariat secretary said the importance of the procedure has been reduced as the EC decided to visit door to door for updating the voter list. "Nevertheless, we are not considering to stop the procedure," he said.