Officials at the EC Secretariat said they have prepared six voter lists since 1973 with around one year in hand ahead of the elections, but this time they have only five months in hand to complete the massive task.

"It is true, we have not faced such situation in preparing the voter list before," Acting Secretary of EC Secretariat Mohammad Zakoria told reporters yesterday.

However, despite the fear of possible difficulties in the task, the officials have to sit idle as the EC is yet to decide its next course of action on the voter list for the next parliamentary elections.

The commission is yet to get the certified copy of the Supreme Court (SC) judgement that asked it to follow the January 4 High Court directives to revise the existing electoral rolls.

"We are waiting for the certified copy of the judgement to decide the next course of action," Zakoria said. He, however, declined to comment on whether it is possible to prepare a flawless voter list in the time remaining before the next election.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz has also been reiterating since the SC judgment came out on May 23 that they will implement the court's directives "properly" after receiving the copy of the verdict.

EC Secretariat officials said they hope to get the judgement copy by this week.

The caretaker government will take office in October to hold the next parliamentary elections in January next year.

Meanwhile, sources said a draft copy of the SC verdict was sent to the CEC last Thursday and the EC is now discussing its action plan.

Officials at the EC Secretariat said the task for revising the existing electoral rolls should be started immediately as huge task will have to be done in this short time.

A senior official told The Daily Star, "It will take the Election Commission at least five months to complete the voter list, excluding the printing task, which will need at least another two or three months to complete."

Besides this huge task, the EC Secretariat will also have to make preparation for conducting the elections. "But we do not have much time. We must complete the voter list before the caretaker government takes office," said another senior officer.

Meanwhile, questioning the credibility of the present EC, the Awami League-led 14-party opposition combine, legal experts and the former election commissioners have demanded removal of the CEC following the SC verdict.

The opposition alliance has even declared that it will not accept the revision of the existing voter list under CEC Aziz.