UNB, Dhaka :
The Election Commission has identified seven reasons behind the significant fall in the share of female among the fresh voters enrolled during the 2014-2015 period.
The causes behind the poor figure include women’s reluctance about collecting birth certificates paying the stipulated fees (which is needed to be voters), lack of awareness among remote women, lack of interest among unmarried and illiterate women to be voters.
The other reasons are reluctance of unmarried
Hindu women to be voters at their parents’ addresses, difficulties faced by women to produce national identity cards of their parents (which are needed to be voters) and long distance between the union-level voter registration centres and their houses, and inclement weather.
Identifying the reasons, the Commission has instructed its field-level officials to engage local public representatives to ensure that women are enrolled spontaneously during the ongoing electoral rolls updating exercise that started on July 25.
The EC is scheduled to complete the three-phase data collection and taking photographs of possible voters by November next to update the country’s voter list.
The Commission at a notification issued on July 27 suggested its officials to engage members of Union Parishad and village police in the data collection process to motivate women to get enrolled.
The notification says the cooperation from the public representatives of the local government bodies, especially the representatives elected from reserved seats, is very essential to ensure women’s registration.
The commission said the local representatives, who have already been included in the city corporation and upazila-level voter registration coordination committees can play a significant role in conducting campaign over the programme alongside playing the due role inside the committee.
Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz said the commission has already instructed the officials to engage local representatives, particularly those who have got elected from reserved seats, in motivating women to be voters.
“We’ve asked our officials to keep the issue of women’s registration under strict watch so that almost all eligible women can get enrolled in the voter list this time,” he told UNB.
The Commission has also instructed its officials for seeking the local administration’s help to motivate possible female voters to be enrolled, Shah Nawaz added.
The Election Commission has identified seven reasons behind the significant fall in the share of female among the fresh voters enrolled during the 2014-2015 period.
The causes behind the poor figure include women’s reluctance about collecting birth certificates paying the stipulated fees (which is needed to be voters), lack of awareness among remote women, lack of interest among unmarried and illiterate women to be voters.
The other reasons are reluctance of unmarried
Hindu women to be voters at their parents’ addresses, difficulties faced by women to produce national identity cards of their parents (which are needed to be voters) and long distance between the union-level voter registration centres and their houses, and inclement weather.
Identifying the reasons, the Commission has instructed its field-level officials to engage local public representatives to ensure that women are enrolled spontaneously during the ongoing electoral rolls updating exercise that started on July 25.
The EC is scheduled to complete the three-phase data collection and taking photographs of possible voters by November next to update the country’s voter list.
The Commission at a notification issued on July 27 suggested its officials to engage members of Union Parishad and village police in the data collection process to motivate women to get enrolled.
The notification says the cooperation from the public representatives of the local government bodies, especially the representatives elected from reserved seats, is very essential to ensure women’s registration.
The commission said the local representatives, who have already been included in the city corporation and upazila-level voter registration coordination committees can play a significant role in conducting campaign over the programme alongside playing the due role inside the committee.
Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz said the commission has already instructed the officials to engage local representatives, particularly those who have got elected from reserved seats, in motivating women to be voters.
“We’ve asked our officials to keep the issue of women’s registration under strict watch so that almost all eligible women can get enrolled in the voter list this time,” he told UNB.
The Commission has also instructed its officials for seeking the local administration’s help to motivate possible female voters to be enrolled, Shah Nawaz added.
