Sylhet voter registration begins from Monday
S A Shofiee, Sylhet :
The door-to-door voter list update process across the country, including Sylhet division, will begin next Monday (January 20). It will continue until February 3. Field workers will go door-to-door to collect information from new voters in Sylhet for these two weeks.
According to sources in the Sylhet Election Office, the registration and information collection process will continue on general and weekly holidays, except for special days. Overall training of field workers has already been completed.
The Election Commission Secretariat has issued a circular stating that the door-to-door voter list update process will continue for two weeks from January 20 to February 3.
The circular states that those born on or before January 1, 2008 or those who were excluded from the previous voter list update process will be included in the list.
During this time, in addition to collecting information about new and excluded voters, information will also be collected from door-to-door to remove the names of deceased voters from the existing list.
After collecting the information, the registration process, including taking the biometrics of the voters, will be completed at the nearby registration center. This biometric collection work will be done in local schools, colleges or madrasas. This process will continue from February 5 to April 11.
Meanwhile, applications for transfer of voter areas will be received at the Upazila Election Officer’s office from February 12 to April 16. At the same time, the names of the deceased will be removed and the information of new voters will be stored through software.
Earlier, on January 2, the EC published the draft voter list of this year. The names of 18 lakh 33 thousand 352 people have been newly added to it. The last time, the final voter list published on March 2 last year had more than 12 crore 18 lakh voters.
Those who became eligible to become voters on January 1, 2025, were added to the list in this year’s update. With the new voters, the total number of voters in the country has reached 12 crore 36 lakh 83 thousand 512.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has issued 16 special instructions on the occasion of the voter update programme. The instructions are-
1. Collect information from people born on or before January 1, 2008 and those who were excluded in the previous voter list update process by going door to door.
2. While collecting information, it must be confirmed whether a person has previously been a voter before filling the information form.
3. In the case of excluded voters, the reason for exclusion must be verified and confirmed.
4. Do not add any profession, title, designation, educational qualification, etc. before or after the name of a person.
5. Record the English spelling of the Bengali name of the eligible voter properly.
6. While going door to door, the information of absent eligible voter must be recorded in the register.
7. Provide the registration slip (Form-5) for coming to the registration center along with the filling of the form.
8. Supervisors should supervise the daily data collection work of the data collectors and verify the samples.
9. Supervisors should check the correctness of some parts of the form filled by the data collector on a random basis and correct it if any mistake is found.
10. Registration of eligible women voters must be ensured. Data collectors and supervisors should ensure that eligible women voters are not left out in any way.
11. Ensure the presence of those filling the registration form at the registration center.
12. Pay special attention to filling the information form for special areas. Verify and include the relevant information while filling the special information form. Fill the special information form along with the registration form-2 for special areas.
13. The voter should submit the application for transfer of voters from one area to another area to the registration officer along with the relevant documents.
14. Exercise utmost caution while collecting information in Form-12 for deletion of names of deceased voters. Be careful not to collect information on the name of a living voter as deceased.
15. Clearly write the national identity card number of the supervisor, data collector and identifier.
16. Be extremely careful not to collect information on Rohingya and foreign nationals in any way.
