Huda proposes formula for voter roll update

Former BNP leader Nazmul Huda yesterday recommended involving ward-level elected public representatives in the voter roll update programme to "complete the work in seven days".
He said a committee would be formed at every ward of the union parishads, municipalities and city corporations with the elected member or councillor as the head.
The committee which will also include former candidates will take the responsibility of the voter list of that particular ward, he told a press conference at the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
"Every decision must be taken unanimously so that none can commit irregularities," said Huda, also chairman of the Bangladesh National Alliance (BNA), a newly-floated political party.
In consultation with the local election officials, the committees will deploy the necessary number of people for data collection or other activities, he said.
Huda, who was expelled from the BNP, said the candidates and elected people knew accurate information about the voters in their ward, and they knew well who had become eligible to be a new voter, and whether any voter had died. "It will be a better procedure than the existing one."
The existing system causes waste of both money and time, Huda said, urging the Election Commission to adopt his formula.
The EC started the voter list update on May 15, which will continue till November 15 in three phases across the country, with over 48,000 data collectors deployed to go from door to door.