Donor agencies agreed to provide financial assistance for preparing the voter list with photographs on the assurance that all eligible people will be listed as voters, British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury told reporters yesterday.

Choudhury was talking to the press after a meeting of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) with representatives of different donor agencies including United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Commission, and Department For International Development (DFID).

EC Secretary Humayun Kabir was also present at the meeting held at the National Economic Council conference room.

This was ERD's second meeting with the donor agencies since the EC asked it to initiate moves to collect funds for the voter list project. The first meeting was held last Sunday.

The British high commissioner yesterday said the EC told them that the voter list will be prepared by setting up voters' registration centres. "It's a good idea. The Election Commission assured us that all eligible people will be registered as voters," Choudhury said, adding, "We want the preparation of the voter list to be completed as soon as possible."

The major political parties, however, have been opposing the EC decision to prepare the voter list by setting up registration centres instead of visiting door-to-door.

Asked if yesterday's meeting discussed the timeframe for holding the next parliamentary election, Choudhury said, "We did not say anything about any timeframe. The government however promised not to go beyond 2008 for holding the election. We hope the election will be held earlier than the timeframe," Choudhury said.

After the meeting, ERD Secretary Aminul Islam Bhuiyan told reporters that the EC will send the donor agencies a demand letter in June. "The financial assistance will have to be unconditional," he said.

Sources meanwhile said the EC has decided to launch a pilot project in the first week of June to study feasibility of the voter list project. The EC will also request Bangladesh Army to provide technical assistance for the pilot project to be implemented in Sripur municipality of Gazipur district, a source said.

The EC will arrange a meeting next week to inform all officials concerned about the project. "The upazila nirbahi officer, chairman and ward commissioners of the Sripur municipality, the district and upazila election officers, and the assistant registration officers will be asked to attend the meeting," the source said.

The project steering committee headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda at a meeting yesterday afternoon discussed the implementation of the pilot project.

The EC has already announced that the field level task for simultaneously preparing the voter list with photographs and national identity cards will begin in August.