CEC says no to AL-BNP call to 'go door to door'

Both the ruling BNP and main opposition Awami League (AL) yesterday reiterated the demand for preparing the voter list by visiting door to door but the chief election commissioner (CEC) rejected the demand showing legal limitations.

Upholding the Election Commission's (EC) June 12 decision not to visit door to door for updating the existing voter list, CEC MA Aziz said yesterday there is no scope to reconsider the decision.

He rather challenged those who said there is no legal bar to visiting door to door for the voter-listing job.

"Bring the eminent jurists to me, I will make them realise that following the verdict of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court there is no way to visit door to door," he told reporters at his office.

"I have been studying the law for 36 years. I can lecture you [reporters] for three to four hours if you want to understand the law," he told journalists.

"The procedure we have initiated according to the Supreme Court judgment will continue," the CEC asserted, claiming that he is doing everything in accordance with the law.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said there is no legal bar to visiting door to door for preparing the voter list. "In no way can a fair voter list be prepared without visiting door to door," Moudud told reporters at his office.

"It is not right to expect that people will visit the district and upazila election offices themselves to register their names in the voter list," he said.

"I am requesting the chief election commissioner through you to reconsider the election commission's decision," he told the reporters.

Echoing the view, AL lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim said in parliament yesterday, "All of us have now reached a consensus on the preparation of the voter list by visiting door to door, but the chief election commissioner keeps on saying that there is no direction in the court's verdict in this regard."

Accusing the CEC of preparing a fake voter list ignoring the High Court judgment, Selim, also AL presidium member, said, "The chief election commissioner is engaged in a conspiracy to foil the election on time in connivance with a vested quarter."

He also demanded that the government reconstitute the EC by removing the CEC and two election commissioners.

"Aziz is now committing a public nuisance in the name of the EC's independence and he must be removed just as former chief election commissioner AKM Sadeque who conducted the controversial February 15 election was removed in 1996," Selim said.

The main opposition AL has been agitating in the streets demanding resignation of the CEC.

Golam Habib Dulal of Jatiya Party, the second largest opposition in parliament, also demanded the same last week and asked the EC to prepare the voter list by visiting door to door. He also questioned the credibility of the present EC in conducting the next parliamentary elections.

LGRD and Cooperatives Minister and BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said on Wednesday it is not possible to prepare a fair voter list without visiting door to door. He requested the EC to reconsider its decision, but the CEC outright rejected the request.

Bhuiyan said the BNP will request the EC to reconsider its decision on voter listing.

The field level election officials feared that a huge number of eligible voters will remain out of the list while many fake voters and dead persons will be on the existing voter list if it is updated without visiting door to door.

Legal experts and former election commissioners have also described the EC decision as illegal and a violation of the court's verdict.

Despite the spate of criticism, however, the EC Secretariat continues the preparatory work for beginning the month-long task of revising the existing voter list from July 1.

Sources said the EC Secretariat has completed printing different forms and will start sending those to the election offices from June 25.