Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission (EC) has said that the commission has planned to send its teams to four countries to enroll Bangladeshi voters who are living in those countries.
The countries are: Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and the United Kingdom (UK), Director General of the EC’s National Identity Registration Wing Brig. Gen. Saidul Islam told reporter on Saturday.
As part of enrolling the expatriates in the Bangladeshi voter list, the Commission earlier initiated a move for sending its team to Singapore to make them voters as a pilot project, he said.
Saidul Islam said the EC had all sorts of preparation to initiate the enrolment process by visiting Singapore in September last, but it could not send its team as it did not get the green signal from the government.
“We’re fully ready to go to Singapore and awaiting the permission from the government to send our team. By the time, we’ve taken a plan to go to four other countries, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and the UK,” said the NIR Wing DG.
He said, “We’ll go to the four countries within 15 days. We’ve also a target to go to 50 countries across the world by 2020 to enroll the
expatriates in Bangladesh voter list.” The Commission will first arrange videoconferences with Bangladesh missions in these four countries before opening the process for submitting application form online by the expatriates, he said.
The NID Wing DG said the EC will not go to all the countries of the world as Bangladeshis are, in fact, concentrated in some 50 countries.
The Bangladeshis staying in other countries will be able to be voters going to the nearby country where the Commission will open desks to enroll them as voters, Saidul Islam added.
The expatriates, willing to be voters, will have to fill the application forms online first. Then the NID Wing will send the application forms to the upazila election offices concerned to verify the data given in the forms to particularly keep foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, out of the voter list.
Following the data verification, the EC will send its teams to the four countries to collect biometrics — fingerprint and iris — of the expatriates. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) will be used in the NID server to prevent the duplicity of voters. Then the authenticated voters will be incorporated in the NID central server.
On completion of the process, the Commission will deliver the smart NID cards to the expatriates through Bangladesh missions in the foreign lands, said officials at the NID wing.
They said, the expatriates will be able to fill application form online from any place. Besides, they said, the Commission will set up helpdesk in the missions to provide help over filling the forms.
The Election Commission (EC) has said that the commission has planned to send its teams to four countries to enroll Bangladeshi voters who are living in those countries.
The countries are: Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and the United Kingdom (UK), Director General of the EC’s National Identity Registration Wing Brig. Gen. Saidul Islam told reporter on Saturday.
As part of enrolling the expatriates in the Bangladeshi voter list, the Commission earlier initiated a move for sending its team to Singapore to make them voters as a pilot project, he said.
Saidul Islam said the EC had all sorts of preparation to initiate the enrolment process by visiting Singapore in September last, but it could not send its team as it did not get the green signal from the government.
“We’re fully ready to go to Singapore and awaiting the permission from the government to send our team. By the time, we’ve taken a plan to go to four other countries, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and the UK,” said the NIR Wing DG.
He said, “We’ll go to the four countries within 15 days. We’ve also a target to go to 50 countries across the world by 2020 to enroll the
expatriates in Bangladesh voter list.” The Commission will first arrange videoconferences with Bangladesh missions in these four countries before opening the process for submitting application form online by the expatriates, he said.
The NID Wing DG said the EC will not go to all the countries of the world as Bangladeshis are, in fact, concentrated in some 50 countries.
The Bangladeshis staying in other countries will be able to be voters going to the nearby country where the Commission will open desks to enroll them as voters, Saidul Islam added.
The expatriates, willing to be voters, will have to fill the application forms online first. Then the NID Wing will send the application forms to the upazila election offices concerned to verify the data given in the forms to particularly keep foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, out of the voter list.
Following the data verification, the EC will send its teams to the four countries to collect biometrics — fingerprint and iris — of the expatriates. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) will be used in the NID server to prevent the duplicity of voters. Then the authenticated voters will be incorporated in the NID central server.
On completion of the process, the Commission will deliver the smart NID cards to the expatriates through Bangladesh missions in the foreign lands, said officials at the NID wing.
They said, the expatriates will be able to fill application form online from any place. Besides, they said, the Commission will set up helpdesk in the missions to provide help over filling the forms.
