EC must upgrade database urgently

THE database of Election Commission (EC) containing elaborate information of about 10.5 crore voters may crash at any time as they have not upgraded the hardware and software, including the automated fingerprint identification system, in due time. Besides, storage capacity of Oracle Exadata system has also expired which has increased the risk of collapse. The EC had upgraded its biometric identification and voter registration systems by consolidating over hundreds of different databases into a single database running on Oracle Exadata Database which normally provides advanced data security, processing, and administration functions. At present, the EC is almost unable to include, exclude or upgrade any information in the database, while three of the eight servers are simultaneously giving critical warning signals .

According to a newspaper report, the EC had lost all files from the database on January 1 due to the server failure. The EC, however, recovered it using the backup database system. The National Identity Registration (NIR) wing informed the matter to the EC cautioning that the risk of database collapse increased many times. The report added that NIR wing sought Taka 372 crore from EC as an emergency budget to upgrade the database.

It’s a highly sensitive issue as the entire matter is closely related with elections, security and the nation’s future. The crisis has so far increased due to wasting unnecessary time in upgrading the system. Though NIR wing said there is no security problem, we cannot depend on its guarantee. When the government has taken a strategy to digitalise administrative and other services from city to village level, at this time this kind of situation is totally unacceptable. It would be hard for the EC to provide NID service at the upazila and village level, if the mother server does not work. Obviously, it will bring nothing but additional sufferings to the people.

There is another serious thing. A database is an organized collection of data and a relational database, more restrictively, is a collection of schemas, tables, queries, reports, views, and other elements. So, the upgradation of draft voter list depends on the active server. If the database is not upgraded immediately, it would not be possible to complete the final voter list before the upcoming 11th national election. We have already seen various errors and complications in the draft voter list published by the EC on January 2. And the fault in voter list occurred as it did not get the matching result of voter’s biometric identification due to server failure.

It is clear that the national database is important not only for EC but also to the country as it preserves the vital data of its adult citizens for an accurate voter list, which is an obligatory part of holding fair elections. We believe, the EC would not waste any time to upgrade the hardware, software and other technical system to save the database. And it should be done on an urgent basis.