EC team arrives from Dhaka, ‘only to train’

Technical experts from Election Office in Dhaka were supposed to visit Chattogram to investigate the incident of uploading 73 dubious applications on the Election Commission (EC) database for issuing national identity card (NID) yesterday.

Although a team arrived in the port city, the team leader said they will not conduct any investigation.

The five-member team led by Khorshed Alam, director of NID Wing of EC, began a three-day training for officials of Chattogram District Election Office yesterday.

Contacted, Khorshed told The Daily Star, “I have come here to conduct a training programme… I have not received any letter from EC to investigate anything.”

Earlier on Tuesday, officials of Chattogram District Election Office including Munir Hossain Khan, Chattogram District Election Officer, and Kamrul Alam, Kotwali Thana Election Officer, told The Daily Star that a team of technical experts would come to Chattogram for further investigation into the incident.

Munir Hussain Khan, however, said, “The team will basically conduct a three-day training programme in the office and in the sideline, they will investigate into the incident of uploading dubious NID applications to the EC database.”

Mentionable, while probing the forged NID card of a Rohingya woman in Chattogram, a government committee has found at least 73 suspicious applications uploaded on the EC database.

However, the two-member body, led by Kotwali Thana Election Officer Kamrul Alam in the port city, could not determine from which EC office those were uploaded. The committee submitted the probe report to Chattogram District Election Officer Munir Hussain Khan on Monday.

It recommended a thorough probe to trace the source of the data.

“It is a mystery how the information was uploaded to the EC server. Only designated persons at the commission know the password,” said Munir.

Kamrul said the applicants are residents of different districts, and the application forms were issued from various places.

“But all of those were supposed to be issued from the same area or adjacent areas,” he said, “Some were issued from Chattogram, some from Cox’s Bazar, some from Laxmipur and several others from Bandarban.”