"The EC has not decided yet whether the field level election officers or the army personnel would go door to door or the people would be asked to gather at specific places for preparing the voter list," EC Secretary Humayun Kabir told the reporters at the EC conference room yesterday.

"We will settle on a methodology after getting advice from all concerned," he said.

The EC would sit with the editors of national dailies and senior journalists on May 17 and seek their opinions on the draft proposals for electoral reforms, Kabir added.

Replying to a question, the EC secretary observed that the voter list would be more acceptable and flawless if it is prepared by the army. "As they have trained manpower with computer skill, chances of duplication in the new voter list will reduce," he said.

Kabir also said that the electoral roll ordinance of 1982 as well as the electoral rules would be amended for preparing the new voter list.

Replying to another question, the EC secretary said that the controversial 302 upazila election officers would sit for examinations on May 18.

On Tuesday, President Iajuddin Ahmed invited CEC ATM Shamsul Huda and two other election commissioners to lunch at Bangabhaban and asked them to make arrangements for holding the general elections in the "shortest possible time."

The chief adviser in an address to the nation on April 12 said that the stalled polls would be held before the end of 2008.

On May 1, the EC said that they would start a pilot project regarding the new voter list within next three weeks.