UNB, Dhaka :
Over 10 lakh people have been registered as fresh voters in 144 upazilas during the countrywide voter list updating exercise till Wednesday (July 9) that started on May 15.
A total of 10,32,397 fresh voters — 5,87,351 men and 4,45,046 women — at a growth of 4.79 percent were registered during the electoral rolls updating in the 144 upazilas that completed on Wednesday.
The data was revealed at an Election Commission meeting held on Thursday at the commission secretariat with Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad in the chair.
Currently, there are 2,15,48,003 voters in the 144 upazilas.
Of the new voters, the highest 6.88 percent voters were registered at Jaintapur of Sylhet, while the lowest 3.32 percent in Bagerhat Sadar upazila.
On May 15, the Election Commission started the three-phase countrywide updating of the voter list with 181 upazilas out of the country’s 514 upazilas in the first phase.
The work on updating the voter lists in the remaining 37 upazilas of the first phase will complete on July 15.
Meanwhile, the commission has already started the registration of voters in 213 more upazilas in the second phase and collected data of possible voters from June 15 to 25 there.
In the second phase, the photographs and fingerprints of the possible voters will be taken in voter registration centres from July 18 to September 15.
In the third phase, the data of possible voters will be collected in 120 upazilas from September 1 to 10, while photographs and fingerprints will be taken in voter registration centres from September 18 to November 15.
The Bangladeshi citizens who have turned 18 on or before January 1, 2015 and the eligible Bangladeshis who missed the current roll are being included in the new voter list.
The commission estimated some 46 lakh fresh voters, a five percent growth, will come out during the voter list updating since the commission did not update the electoral rolls in 2013.
The updated voter list will be given effect in 2015 on completion of necessary procedures like publication of draft rolls to receive public complaints.
