"Considering all aspects of the work, we spoke of an 18-month timeline for preparation of a voter roll with photographs. We are trying our best to speed things up and might even be able to wrap it up within a year. And in that event, the very next day I will inform the government that I'm going to announce the election schedule," he observed.

"We hope to begin the field work in August though in the ground plan it was supposed to start later [in November]," he said adding that the commission has raised the number of teams to 12,000 from 8,000 as it wants to finish voter-listing even earlier.

The poll chief was speaking to editors and senior journalists of different national dailies on the EC's draft proposals for electoral reforms.

"I am a cautious man and that's why I said we would need 18 months to prepare the roll. The task might be completed within 12 months. But I won't say that because I know if it's not done by that time I will be torn to shreds," Huda said replying to queries from journalists.

He said the 18-month time frame began from May 1.

The CEC on April 5 announced that 18 months would be needed for simultaneous preparation of a voter list with photographs and national identity cards. Of the time, six months were meant for the preparatory work and the rest for field level task.

A team of experts from the Bangladesh Army Wednesday said the field level work could be completed in six months.

The next day the secretary to the EC Secretariat said the commission disagrees with the timeline, terming it hypothetical.

However, the CEC yesterday refuted any suggestion of conflict with the armed forces over the issue.

"I think the army experts have calculated only the time for the field level work, whereas many things are to be done before and after that," he said.

"The troops will be involved only in one-fourth of the task. The army chief has already told me that they are not willing to get into the hassles of purchasing equipment. Their time begins from receiving the equipment," Huda said referring to his conversation with the chief of army staff.

He said schoolteachers, and members of the Ansars and Village Defence Party will work for voter-listing while the army personnel will co-ordinate the gathering and processing of particulars of the prospective voters.

About the national ID cards, the CEC said initially provisional cards will be issued to the voters. Later, they will get the permanent cards on surrendering the temporary ones.