Draft voters' list controversy

Recently it was revealed by Channel-i and later reported in other print media, that as many as 899 false names have been sent by some election officials to the Assistant Registration Officer (ARO) of DCC Ward No 41 Aminul Huq Bhuiyan, who is a teacher of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government High School, for inclusion in the list. But on suspicion the ARO refused to include the fake names and for this noncompliance he claimed to have received threatening phone calls from some unknown people. It has been further exposed that the enumerator who had filled the registration forms did not receive the required permission to do the job and on top of that he had submitted false credentials as a teacher of a local school. But, on the other hand, the EC Secretariat claimed to have found the existence of those 899 voters in Ward No. 41 of West Agargaon after an investigation and has asked Aminul to return the registration forms.

The number of alleged fake voters in this case may appear to be small but it has to be taken with due seriousness. The issue of restoring faith in the people about the transparency of works of the EC is in question here. And it goes without saying that the EC will not be able to hold a free and fair election with a flawed voter list. Therefore, all efforts must be given by the EC officials to rectify the mistakes and come up with a revised voters' list acceptable to all.

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