Staff Reporter :
Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah has announced that the final draft of the voter list will be published within two months.
He made the statement following the first meeting of the AMM Nasir Uddin-led committee, which was formed after its members took the oath of office on 24 November.
The meeting, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin, was held at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city’s Agargaon area on Monday. It was attended by three other election commissioners: Md Anwarul Islam Sarker, Abdur Rahman el Masud, and Begum Tahmida Ahmad.
“The final voter list for 2025 will be published on 2 March,” stated EC Sanaullah, adding that data for 1.7 million eligible individuals has been collected so far. These individuals will be registered as new voters on 1 January 2025.
Of this total, data for approximately 1.3 million prospective voters was collected in 2022, while the remaining 400,000 individuals visited election offices on various occasions to register as voters.
The commissioner further announced that the Election Commission (EC) will conduct a door-to-door data collection campaign to update the voter list following the celebration of National Voter Day on 2 March.
During this campaign, data will be gathered for voters who are currently unregistered as well as those who will become eligible to vote in 2026. These new voters will then be included in the 2026 electoral rolls.
According to EC Sanaullah, the door-to-door data collection campaign is expected to take approximately six months to complete.
Additionally, EC Additional Secretary KM Ali Newaz stated that the draft of the updated voter list is published annually on 2 January. Following this, the EC receives and addresses complaints regarding the draft list before finalising the electoral rolls.
A search committee was formed on 31 October under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Appointment Act, 2022, to recommend candidates for the new EC.
Within 15 days, the committee submitted a list of 10 nominees to the President, based on criteria such as qualifications, disqualifications, experience, competence, and reputation.
From this list, President Md Shahabuddin appointed former secretary Nasir Uddin as CEC on 21 November.
The other new members of the EC are Md Anwarul Islam Sarker, a retired additional secretary; Abdur Rahman el Masud, a district and sessions judge; Tahmida Ahmad, a retired joint secretary; and Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah, a retired brigadier general.
On 24 November, the new EC members were sworn in by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed at the Supreme Court Judges’ Lounge.
