The Election Commission (EC) will publish the draft voter list on August 10 and the final voter list will be published on August 31, said an official statement on Monday.
According to the notice, a separate draft list of registered voters who were born in or before 1st January, 2007 will be published on August 10. This list includes those who are newly eligible to vote. A list of deceased voters will also be published for exclusion from the final roll.
The commission also mentioned that after the publication of the supplementary voter list, people will have time until August 21 to submit applications. During this time, voters can apply to include eligible names, remove names of deceased or ineligible persons, correct mistakes, or change voter locations.
Later this month, the EC will publish the final voter list, which will include the supplementary updates. As per rules, the EC had earlier conducted a door-to-door campaign to update voter information before preparing the lists.
In March this year, on National Voter Day, the commission reported that there were more than 123.7 million registered voters in the country. Officials believe the number will increase in the final list.
Earlier, K.M. Ali Newaz, Additional Secretary of the EC Secretariat, confirmed that the draft voter list would be released on August 10, followed by verification and the final publication.
Before that, on July 21, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said the draft list would be released within the month.
He also said that 4.46 million new voters have become eligible and will be included in the list. After addressing any objections or corrections, the final voter list will be made public by the end of August. Meanwhile, Election Commission Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Monday said that a European Union pre-election observation team is set to visit Bangladesh in mid-September to assess the electoral environment ahead of the 13th parliamentary election.
“A pre-election observer team of the European Union will visit in mid-September. It will include three international and four local observers,” he said, citing a formal communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received earlier in the day.
The EC Secretary made the remark while talking to reporters about the electoral preparation at his office in the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban.
He said the EU team would observe the pre-election environment and assess the EC’s readiness for the upcoming parliamentary polls.
