Questions as 80 lakh citizens added to voter list

The Election Commission (EC) has added around 79.83 lakh citizens to the updated voter list, leaving experts scratching their heads over the 5.1% rise in just one year until January 2023. 

The EC attributes the rise to pent-up voter counts during the pandemic and a surge in listing by Bangladeshi nationals currently staying abroad.

The update to the voter list ran from June to November 2022. In 2022, the total number of voters was around 113,287,010. The update will drop a record 2,209,129 dead voters from the list and include 7,983,277 new ones.

Election Commission Secretary Mohammad Jahangir Alam on Sunday said a total of 11.90 crore voters will be able to cast their ballots in the upcoming general election. 

"The 12th parliamentary election will be held using the finalised voter list. After removing dead voters and adding the new ones, the total number of voters expanded by 5,774,148, or 5.1%," said the EC secretary.

However, Brig Gen (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, a former Election Commissioner, called the 5.1% rise "absurd" and urged the EC to scrutinise the figure. "Even if they find the unusual rise to be true, they should mention the reasons in the final report," he added.

Brig Gen (Retd) Hossain, who launched the voter card in 2008 that later turned out to be the national identity card, said he never saw the growth crossing 3% while in office. 

He was also surprised at the record number of dead voters being removed from the list.  

Once the draft of the voter list is released, voters can apply with the local authorities if they require any correction. Once their objections are settled, the final voter list will be released on 2 March.

Mohammad Mainul Islam, a professor at the Population Sciences Department of Dhaka University, also raised questions about the figure. 

Referring to the latest statistics bureau data, he said the population growth is 21.86 lakh as 8 lakh people die each year. 

"I do not understand how 79 lakh people got listed and 22 lakh people were removed from the voter list in one year. The EC says it enlisted 800 hijras this time, while the population census estimates their number to be at least 12,500," he told The Business Standard.

According to EC count, some 14.65 lakh new voters got listed with the commission in 2021 during the update. The figure was 55.79 lakh in 2020, 53 lakh in 2019 and 10.41 lakh in 2018.         

Ashok Kumar Debnath, additional secretary to the Election Commission, said that many youths who were left out of the count during the pandemic were enlisted on the voter list this time. Besides, a big number of citizens living abroad were enlisted as new voters during the update.

The 12th national election will be held at the end of 2023 or the start of 2024. EC officials say that this year's survey also collected information on people between the ages of 15-17 and eligible citizens left off previous voter lists.

AKM Humayun Kabir, director general of the National Identity Card Registration Division (NID) of the Election Commission Secretariat, said that they have been collecting data about citizens aged 15-17 years every three years by going home to home since 2016. 

He said the EC updates the voter database accordingly every year.

"The doubt and confusion are due mostly to Covid disruptions to counting. Though the rise is 5.1%, we assumed it to be 7.5%. So, it is normal, not absurd," he added.