But the commission has yet to decide whether such voters will finally be allowed to cast their votes without their photographs on the voter list.

The EC had earlier decided that one will have to visit the voter registration centres to have his or her photograph taken for the voter list with photographs.

To complete the task of preparing the voter list with all eligible persons' names on it within the shortest possible time, the EC had already decided to send its enumerators to door-to-door visits to collect the particulars of prospective voters, and now it decided to register voters even without photographs, sources said.

"We have decided to register an eligible citizen's name on the voter list even if the person's photograph is not available. But the Election Commission will decide later whether that person will be allowed to cast a vote in the election," Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters yesterday.

Huda disclosed the decision a day after his meeting with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.

"There is only one problem…how quickly can we hold the election by preparing the voter list," the CEC said following a meeting with the local administration of Sripur municipality in Gazipur regarding the pilot project that is scheduled to begin there on June 10 as a preamble to preparing the voter list with photographs.

Asked about his meeting with the chief adviser (CA) on Saturday, the CEC said they discussed how to complete the task of preparing the voter list as soon as possible.

Enumerators will distribute voter registration forms to collect particulars about prospective voters by going from door to door. But prospective voters will have to visit the voter registration centres to have their photographs taken, the CEC said.

"One's name can be on the voter list without an accompanying photograph, but he or she will not get a national identity card until his or her photograph is submitted," he said adding, "We will also try to collect their photographs for the voter list."

The CEC categorically said there will be only one voter list prepared containing the names of voters whose photographs will be attached and also of those whose photographs will not be on it.

The existing laws do not allow a separate list, the CEC said.

Election Commissioner Sahul Hossain said they hope that the number of people, who might express reluctance to have their photographs taken, will be very small. "Besides, we will keep convincing them to visit the voter registration centres to have their photographs taken for the voter list," he told The Daily Star last night.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain however said the EC will take a decision about the percentage of eligible persons to be allowed to be registered as voters without photographs.

The CEC termed the 18-month timeframe for preparing simultaneously the voter list with photographs and national identity cards as a broad timeframe.

"We will be able to give a clear picture about the timeframe required for preparing the voter list after the completion of the pilot project by June," the CEC said.

In the EC's original plan, six months were allocated for taking preparations and according to that plan, the field level task of preparing the voter list was supposed to begin from November. But the EC later readjusted the plan and announced that the field level work will start in August in a bid to save time. The EC also decided to increase the number of field level teams from 8,000 to 12,000, who will carry out the task across the country in phases.

Asked whether the budget for the project will be increased as the number of teams already has, the CEC said the cost will not go up as a lesser amount of time will be required due to the deployment of additional teams.

"Perhaps, it would have taken 10 months if we had deployed 8, 000 teams. Now it might require 8 months if 12,000 teams are deployed to do the job," CEC Huda said.

BAN ON INDOOR POLITICS
The CEC said they will not ask the government again to lift the ban on indoor politics. "We have already asked the government," said Huda, who on April 4 at a meeting with the law adviser asked the government to lift the ban on indoor politics to allow the EC to hold talks with political parties on electoral reforms.

"I don't want to say anything about it. My two colleagues and I have already talked enough about it," he quipped.

Asked whether he discussed the issue with the CA during their Saturday's meeting, he replied in the negative.

UPAZILA ELECTION OFFICERS
Asked about 303 controversial upazila election officers who took an exam on May 18 to prove their merit, the CEC said results of the test have yet to be ready for publication. "It's not true," the CEC said when his attention was drawn to news published in some national dailies that most of the examinees flunked the test.

He said the EC will consider the humanitarian aspects in deciding the fate of the controversial election officers.