EC to start upadating electoral roll July 25

The Election Commission (EC)-appointed enumerators will start going door to door from July 25 to collect data of citizens and update the electoral roll.

For the first time the EC will be collecting data of those aged 15 years and above instead of 18, EC Secretary Sirazul Islam told a press conference at the EC's media centre yesterday.

However, only those aged 18 or above will be included in the electoral roll. “We are collecting their (below 18) data in advance to process their personal information for preparing national identity (NID) cards,” he added.

The electoral roll programme will be implemented in 189 upazilas in the first phase, then in 184 and 141 upazilas in the second and third phases respectively.

Following the first phase of data collection from July 25 to August 9, citizens will have to go to the EC-authorised centres between August 11 and September 1 and get registered and their photos taken.

The corresponding periods for the second phase are August 16 to 30 and September 3 to 22 and for the third phase September 7 to 22 and September 30 to October 22.

A total of 50,000 enumerators will be working with upazila-level coordination committees supervising.

The EC expects around 72 lakh new voters. The total number of voters at present is over 9.62 crore.

Besides, special measures will be taken at different upazilas of Cox's Bazar, Bandarban and Rangamati so that Rohingyas and trespassers are not included.