On directives from the headquarters, the local army camps have asked the district election offices to provide them with the information based on the highly controversial voter list that was prepared for the stalled ninth parliamentary election, said sources.

"The Election Commission and the Bangladesh Army have already started planning for the project to prepare a voter list with photographs and national identity cards. The numbers of voters in your areas [upazila/ municipality or city corporation ward/union] according to the voter list of 2006 is needed to be known to complete the task properly," a source quoted from a letter sent to a district election officer.

Contacted, several field-level election officials yesterday told The Daily Star that they have already sent the information in line with the directives.

The last year's voter roll triggered a huge controversy over its authenticity and became one of the causes of the political crisis centring the parliamentary election.

In response to a writ petition filed by a voter in the capital, the High Court on March 27 declared the electoral roll null and void.

It also observed that the electoral register was prepared without complying with the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 and the Supreme Court directives.

Asked about relying on statistics from a voter list invalidated by the HC, field-level election officials said the information would be used only to estimate the number of prospective voters.