The Election Commission (EC) publishes today the draft voter list for Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) area, providing the last chance for left out eligible residents to register as voters for the upcoming 9th parliamentary and city corporation elections.
The EC also invites claims and objections from already registered voters, which must be filed with election offices concerned.
The draft voter list for DCC will be on display for public scrutiny in district and thana election offices and in the offices of ward commissioners from today till August 11.
All applications for being registered as voters and for correcting information already on the list must be submitted by August 1.
The revising authorities will settle the claims and objections by August 30, and the final list will be published on September 4, while the EC plans to hold the long over due polls to DCC by the end of October.
Officials of the EC Secretariat said a person eligible to be a voter, who could not get photographed and registered, can now be registered as a voter by applying for it on prescribed forms, which are available from today in the offices where the draft voter list is on display for public inspection.
Those who will apply for being registered as voters will be informed later about the schedule for getting photographed and fingerprinted, the officials added.
The application forms will also be available from assistant registration officers, most of whom are schoolteachers who earlier worked for voter registration. Those are also supposed to be available from the offices of DCC ward commissioners.
The draft voter list registered around 36 lakh voters in the DCC area.
EC officials said if any eligible individual misses this last chance for being registered as a voter, the person most probably will not be able to become a voter before the upcoming DCC and parliamentary polls, as the commission already decided not to provide any other chance for getting registered as voters before the polls.
They said people living in areas under the thanas of Lalbagh, Kotwali, Sutrapur, Motijheel, Sabujbagh, Khilgaon, and Demra and in areas adjacent to those may pick up the application forms from the election office situated at 686 North Sajahanpur, while residents of Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Pallabi and Cantonment thanas and of areas adjacent to those may pick up the forms from the election office at 67 West Agargaon.