Voter sign-up now open till a month before polls schedule

The advisory council yesterday in principle approved the Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Ordinance-2025 that allows the Election Commission to register voters one month before the election schedule is announced, said EC officials.

The ordinance states that individuals who turn 18 before a reasonable time prior to the announcement of national and other polls schedules should be granted the right to vote.

After the meeting, Foyez Ahammad, senior assistant press secretary of chief adviser, told a media briefing at Foreign Service Academy that the "reasonable time" would be at least a month.

Individuals who become eligible voters in a calendar year are enrolled as voters for the next year. Every year, the EC updates the voter list and announces a draft list on January 1 and finalises it on March 2. The commission sets January 1 as the cut-off time to become a voter.

Due to this process, many who became eligible to cast vote after January of a year do not get the chance to exercise their right even if the elections are held in December.

Usually, the EC prepares a supplementary voter list ahead of a national election. Those who  became eligible to vote the year before but had not been enrolled are allowed to exercise their franchise through the supplementary voter list.

The EC collected data for the updated voter list through door-to-door visits from on January 20 this year.

EC sources said the updated supplementary voter list, which might include another 44 lakh new voters, would be published soon.

Until March 2, there were 12.37 crore voters in the country.

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on July 9 ordered the authorities to complete the preparations for the upcoming national election by December.

The polls are likely to take place in February or April, he told a meeting with law enforcers in the capital.

On June 13, after a meeting between Yunus and Tarique Rahman in London, where the BNP acting chairman suggested that polls could be held before Ramadan, Yunus said it was indeed possible to hold the polls the week before the month of fasting if all preparations are completed.

Ramadan is expected to begin in the third week of February.