Bangladesh correcting voters' list ahead of poll

Dhaka, Dec 8: The Bangladesh Election Commission today began aweek-long effort to overhaul the list of voters, which an electionwatchdog says contains millions of erroneous names, ahead of January'sparliamentary elections.

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute forInternational Affairs (NDI) said last week, following a sample surveyof voters, that the current list had more than 12 million names enteredin error or by repetition.

NDI's Bangladesh representative Owen Lippert met electionofficials twice last week to discuss the matter. Election Commissionsecretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar later said the commission would seekNDI's assistance while updating the list.

''This time we hope the country will have a correct voters' list,'' an NDI spokesman said today.

Sheikh Hasina, leader of a 14-party alliance and a key player innext month's election, today asked her followers to closely monitor thedrive to correct the voters' list.

''Go to all election offices across the country ... to make surethat only genuine voters are enlisted and ghost voters areeliminated,'' Hasina told her followers today.

Yesterday, the commission announced a new election schedule, changing the polling date to January 23 from January 21.

Accordingly, the last day for filing nominations is now set forDecember 21 and the deadline for withdrawing from the race is onDeccember 28.

Both Hasina's alliance and the rival four-party combine led byBegum Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have acceptedthe revised schedules.

Khaleda ended her five-year tenure as prime minister late inOctober, handing power to an interim government, headed by PresidentIajuddin Ahmed, to oversee the polls.

She and Hasina are bitter political foes who refuse to even speakto each other. They have alternated as the Bangladesh premier for thepast 15 years.

Hasina asked alliance leaders at a meeting yesterday to immediately start preparations for the election.

But she threatened again to ''besiege'' the presidential palaceunless election commission officials she accused of bias in favour ofKhaleda were removed immediately.

''An election cannot be be fair and impartial if biased andcontroversial officials are still there (at the election commission),''Hasina said.

The Awami alliance has led violent protests and blockades,demanding reforms in the election commission over the past few weeks inwhich at least 44 people have been killed and hundreds injured.

Reuters