Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission (EC) is set to begin the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, initially focusing on 61 seats following the submission of over 400 applications requesting changes in demarcation.
“As of Wednesday, a total of 405 to 406 applications concerning 61 parliamentary constituencies have been received. These 61 seats will be our primary observations,” EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters at his office in the capital yesterday.
He, however, said the number of constituencies could change as the process unfolds. “The number may increase or decrease since some of the 61 are interrelated with other constituencies, and not all applications may be so logical. So, it would not be right to confirm the exact number in advance,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Advisory Council approved the final draft of the National Parliament Constituency Delimitation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, which proposes amending Article 8 (3) of the existing law, as sought by the EC.
Regarding the proposed ordinance, Akhtar Ahmed said the EC will begin the delimitation work once the gazette notification is issued. “We are now sorting the application and will be able to resolve the applications promptly.”
The EC secretary said the commission will still continue accepting new ones related to constituency demarcation.
Asked about the timeframe to complete the delimitation task, the EC secretary said, “It is too premature to comment about the timeline now.”
EC halts NID verification by Ansar, BRAC Bank
On the other hand, EC’s National Identity (NID) wing, director general (DG) ASM Humayun Kabir said that the EC has suspended NID verification services of one paramilitary auxiliary force and a bank after detecting data leak.
“During routine monitoring on Tuesday, we found evidence that our data was being leaked from the two institutions — Ansar and Village Defense Party (VDP) and BRAC Bank.”
A formal investigation is already under way, he said.
According to the DG, the EC assigns routine data security checks to specific teams who monitor access by different institutions.
“It was during such checks that we discovered the leak. A more in-depth review led us to the source,” he said.
He explained that when investigators followed the link suspected of leaking data, it led directly to Ansar VDP and BRAC Bank, confirming those as the origin points.
Efforts are ongoing to stop the “data breach” through all available means, he said.
The EC currently has agreements with 186 institutions to provide NID data verification services.
In February, similar data leakage concerns prompted the suspension of services to five organisations.
With the latest breach, two more institutions have now been added to that list.
