EC to train over 10 lakh officials for national polls

The Election Commission (EC) has started training activities for election related officials for 13th Jatiya Sangsad election as over 10 lakh presiding and polling officers will be imparted training. 

According to EC sources, that the training programme, which started in different groups, will be completed four-five days before the voting.

EC's Electoral Training Institute (ETI) Director General SM Asaduzzaman told BSS yesterday (2 september) that election-related officials will be trained in 23 types of work. This training programme will continue for around four months.

However, the main training related to the election will be for presiding, assistant presiding and polling officers. 

Their number will be more than 10 lakh, according to the EC secretariat.

He said that the challenge of this election is a little different. "Keeping in mind the past three elections, this time we will try to conduct the election activities with as many fresh people as possible," Asaduzzaman said.

If fresh people come, they will have less idea of the election, he said adding therefore, the EC has to train them more in-depth. 

"We have already faced challenges during the update of the voter list. Therefore, we will try to recruit new people so that a beautiful, acceptable, neutral and participatory election can be held," he said.

The polling officers and other election training programmes have been detailed in the roadmap for the National Parliament elections announced by the EC. 

Accordingly, before the schedule is announced, the planning and instruction activities will be ongoing to complete the 'Training of Trainers ' (ToT) of the polling officers on the occasion of the National Parliament elections.

According to the EC's roadmap, a plan will be prepared and instructions will be given for the training programme of the ToT trainers on the occasion of the National Parliament elections between 16 September and 30 November.

The ToT trainers include all officers of the EC Secretariat, National Identity Registration Wing and Election Training Institute, Senior District or District Election Officer, Upazila or Thana Election Officer, Assistant Upazila or Assistant Thana Election Officer, Administrative and Personal Officers and officers of other departments.

Training of Master Trainers (ToT) and Training of Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) will be provided for the training of polling agents. During this time, 3,600 officers will be trained. 

In addition, training or briefing will also be provided to Divisional Commissioners, DIGs, Police Commissioners, Regional Election Officers, Deputy Commissioners, and Police Superintendents. 

After the election schedule is announced, online training or briefing will be conducted with executive magistrates to ensure compliance with the code of conduct at the field level.

 The proposal also includes training or briefing for members of the Electoral Inquiry Committee between 1 December and 25 December.

Training or briefing will be given to judicial and executive magistrates five to seven days before the voting. 

Judicial magistrates will discharge their duties in the field level for two days before the election, on the day of the election and two days after the election.

In this regard, Asaduzzaman said, "Election training is a long process. We have to complete 23 types of election-related training within the few months we have. Here we have core training." 

He said core training is training for senior officials of the Election Commission Secretariat and those officials will later conduct a ToT training. 
 
"This is the necessary training given to our upazila and district level officers and those in other departments. We conduct ToT with them. This number is about 3,500," said Asaduzzaman.

He said, along with this, there is the issue of law and order training. Here, the Divisional Commissioner, DIG, Police Commissioner, will be trained, he added. 

Then the DC-SPs will be trained in different stages and then the UNOs will be trained while there will be training for Ansars. 

"Again, regarding the technical issues, the programmers and assistant programmers that we have in different districts of the country, that is, the presiding, assistant presiding and polling officers, will have to be given the main training. 

He also said, our training activities have started since  29 August. And it will end four or five days before the elections. It will take about four months to train us, he said.

Mentioning that this time, innovation has been brought to the training, SM Asaduzzaman said, there are three parts to the training. 

"Our main part is - we will give them an idea of the electoral laws, rules and regulations. The second is how they will work. What will the work procedure and the entire process from collecting materials, from receiving to counting votes will be taught," he said.

Another is to do a motivational work to build confidence among them considering the past context. 

"We will bring them to that level, as if the presiding officer thinks that he is the 'Chief Election Commissioner' for that centre. We are working to increase this confident level. Another thing is to discuss what kind of problems a presiding officer may face. In this case, we will hypothetically warn and train them by referring to the problems that have occurred in the last three elections," he said.