Staff Reporter :Criticising the up gradation of voter list, Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik [SUJAN], a non-government organisation, has said that the ‘failed’ Election Commission has created gender gap problem for which a good number of female voters would be excluded from the list in the future. “The Election Commission has failed to perform its constitutional duties like supervision, direction and regulation for preparing the voter list. And so, a serious problem namely gender gap has been raised. In future, huge number of women will not get chance to enlist their names in the voter list,” said Badiul Alam Mazumder, General Secretary of SUJAN at a press conference at the National Press Club on Saturday.SUJAN raised the allegations against the Election Commission at a time when voter list updating process began across the country on Saturday [yesterday] with data collection of possible voters in 189 upazilas and thanas in the first phase of three phases.Presenting the keynote paper, Badiul Alam Mazumder further said, “The upgradation of voter list started from Saturday. But we are very much concerned over the issue… our previous experience is bitter. The voter list of 2008 is our pride, but different irregularities were found during upgradation of voter list in last few years. Particularly, there is a serious dissimilarity like ‘gender gap’ in the voter list of January 2015.””According to census of 2011, the sex ratio is 100.3 in Bangladesh. As per this estimation, the number of women is almost equal to number of men. But the existing voter list with inclusion of new voters shows a gender gap of -12 %. Obviously, it has raised question,” he said.He said, “The number of voters [as per list of 2008] was 8, 10, 58, 698. As per the estimation, the number of female voters was 14, 13, 600 more than the number of male voters. At that time, the gender gap was -1.74 %. “When the voter list was upgraded in 2013, the number of total voters stood at 9, 19, 80, 531. The female voters were 2, 91, 399 fewer than the male voters. The gender gap was -0.32%. The Election Commission again took initiatives to upgrade voter list in May-November in 2014. Later, a draft supplementary voter list was published on January 2, 2015.” “As per the new voter list, the number of new voters increased upto 50 lakh while the gender gap was -11.67. But in final list, the gender gap has been shown -12%. So, the people have the right to know for what reason the gender gap increased. We hope, the Commission will give the answer,” he said. Clarifying the laps, he said, “There are also several allegations: 1) the voter list was prepared without going door-to-door, 2) 15-17 years old people have been brought under consideration in the ongoing voter list up gradation, 3) violation of law by starting up- gradation work in July instead of January, and 4) lack of publicity about the upgradation of voter list.” Blaming the Election Commission for total failure, the SUJAN secretary said, “The inefficiency of Election Commission has created an unnecessary problem that is gender gap. So, we urge the Commission to discharge their duties with utmost sincerity, honesty and devotion for completion of the constitutional work.” President of SUJAN M Hafiz Uddin Khan, former Election Commissioner Brigadier General [retd] Sakhawat Hossain, Syed Abul Maksud, Ali Imam Majumdar, Dr Tofail Ahmed, former ambassador Nasim Ferdous and women leader Salma Khan, among others, were present at the press briefing. Meanwhile, the enumerators will collect data of Bangladeshi citizens born on or before January 1, 2000 throughout the country till September 22 this year during the three-phase data collection programme.Of them, only those who were born on or before January 1, 1998 will be registered as voters in 2016. Besides, data of dead voters will be collected in order to erase their names from the electoral rolls.The enumerators will conduct door-to-door data collection in 514 upazlias and thanas covering the entire country to prepare an errorless database. Apart from it, the Commission will start distributing smart national identity [NID] cards among some 10 crore voters of the country soon.
