NID flaw: They are ‘dead’ despite being alive

Md Bajlur Rahman (L) and Abdul Jalil

Md Bajlur Rahman (L) and Abdul Jalil
Prothom Alo

Certain Bajlur Rahman, who went to correct his name to the office of the upazila election officer, found he had reportedly died a few years back and his name had been dropped from the server of the national information centre.

According to the academic certificate, his name is Md Bajlur Rahman, a resident from Krishnanagar village in Jhikargacha municipality in Jashore.

However, his name is Bajlur Rahman according to his national identity card (NID). He went to the local information centre to add ‘Md’ in his name.

However, there was no information about him in the server of the national information centre.

He works as an assistant teacher of science in Saint Louis Secondary School. He is about to retire by the end of this year. He does not know how he appeared as ‘dead’ in the voter list.

Just as Bajlur Rahman, farmer Abdul Jalil and housewife Marjina Begum from the same upazila also appeared as dead in the voter list. They all have recently appealed to the upazila election officer to add their names.

His name is not correct in his national identity card. At first, he went to a local information centre for the correction. Later on 17 January, he went to the office of the upazila election officer and came to know about his “death”. He was told that he had ‘died’ in between 2009 to 2014. On that very day, he applied for changing his status and re-include his name in the voter list.

Farmer Abdul Jalil of Magura village in Jhikargacha upazila is 60 years old. He got his NID in 2008. Even, he had cast votes in different national and local elections. However, he could not cast his vote in the union parishad poll in 2016. He thought that his name was omitted from the voter list by mistake. Later, he could not cast his vote in the parliamentary election of 2018 and Jhikargacha upazila parishad election in 2018 too. At last, he went to the office of the upazila election officer with the problem and came to know about his own ‘death’.

Abdul Jalil said, “When I went to the office of the election officer, they said, you are dead. The computer has declared you dead. On 19 January, I submitted the required papers for inclusion again.”

According to the data of the voter list, Marjina Begum of Kamarpara village in Jhikargacha died on 2 January, 2017. She also applied for the correction on 19 January.

According to the sources, the upazila election officer has applied to the senior election officer of Jashore for the re-inclusion of the data of these three in the related server of the voter list on 20 January.