The Election Commission on Wednesday dismissed the apprehensions of including the people aged below 18 years into the national voters’ rolls.
It said the people of the aforementioned age group, whose information are being collected by its enumerators in the ongoing voters’ list updating process, would in no way be enlisted in the electoral rolls until they reach 18.
Asking all not to create any confusion about the voters’ list updating, the commission, in a press statement, claimed that it was collecting information of people aged from 15-17 to save public money and not to hamper educational activities in future.
“The EC’s attention has been drawn to opinions and statements of different quarters including a non-government organisation regarding collecting information of the people aged from 15 to 17. There is no scope for underaged people to get enlisted in the voters’ roll,” read the statement signed by EC director (public relations) SM Asaduzzaman.
The statement said, “The information of the 15-17 group of people will in no way be included into the main database or in the electoral rolls. So, none of them will be able to be a voter before they reach 18.”
“The enumerators will not need to visit door-to-door in the next two years once the information of the 15-17 age group people are collected and it will save money on the one hand and a huge number of teachers who are usually engaged in the process will then be able to give attention to educational activities, on the other,” the EC said justifying its stance.
The statement said the commission is further considering issuance of national identity cards to all of the citizens and with that end in view the information of the people aged below 18 is being collected.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday smelled a rat at the Election Commission’s decision to include the people from the age of 15 in the voters’ roll and alleged that the election commissioners had breached their oath.
Voicing concern over the Election Commission’s decision to enrol people aged from 15 years up in the voters’ roll, Ripon alleged that the EC might have a ulterior motives behind this. “The EC has taken the move to enrol people aged from 15 up, going against legal provisions.”
Source: Prothom Alo
