EC seeks power to fix cut-off date for new voters

The Election Commission has sent the draft voter registration (amendment) act to the Law Ministry, seeking authority to determine a logical cut-off date for the inclusion of new voters in the electoral roll ahead of the national election.

The Election Commission has sent the draft voter registration (amendment) act to the Law Ministry, seeking authority to determine a logical cut-off date for the inclusion of new voters in the electoral roll ahead of the national election.

"We have proposed changes in the existing law to determine the date until which voters can be included in the voter list (before the election),” said EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed while talking to reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban on Thursday.

The EC’s move came in a bid to ensure the voting rights of a larger number of youths in the 13th parliamentary election.

He said the proposed change would allow the Commission to determine a logical cut-off date based on its consideration in a formal meeting —to include new voters ahead of the polls.

“The Election Commission will determine the date as the cut-off time considering the election schedule and the date of symbol allocation. We’ve sent an amendment proposal to the Law Ministry in this regard,” said the secretary.

About the delimitation of constituencies, Akhtar said the EC has received applications over 76 parliamentary constituencies out of 300 ones—some applications sought changes in the existing boundaries, while others asked to retain the current boundaries.

“We will assess both types of the applications. We will do whatever seems logical to us based on the variables such as population, geographic location and administrative boundaries. The review is still going on and nothing has been finalised yet,” he said, adding that the EC will have to finish the process soon.

The EC is also preparing for necessary procurement to hold the next general election. “We expect to begin procurement procedures by September,” he said.

Party Registration

Akhtar Ahmed said the deadline for new political party registration expired on June 22. “We received a total of 147 applications from 144 parties. Three parties submitted more than one application,” he said.

Now 20 EC officials are engaged in the preliminary scrutiny of these applications, he said, adding that the number of election symbols will go up, but the final decision in this regard will be taken by the Commission.