Gross inaccuracies have been detected by many voters in their names and addresses on the old list. One could only refer to Dhaka-10 by-election where discrepancies, even at the micro-level, were detected by independent observers. The last electoral roll is said to have been preserved in the EC's central database system, and some might take the view that a mere revision of the list could do. But just an update wouldn't meet the requirement, because the existing electoral roll is highly flawed. Besides, given the five-year plus interregnum between the preparation of the electoral roll prior to the 2001 election and the upcoming one a new generation of eligible voters have emerged to be franchised.

In all, therefore, the EC faces the massive task of preparing a new voters' list.

It is well and good that the EC is thinking of engaging the political parties in a dialogue, but preparation of a voter list is the mandated responsibility and primary duty of the EC. The political parties, however, in their own interest need cooperating with EC in the preparation of a fully credible electoral roll.

The exercise of putting all eligible voters on the list, vital as it is, can't by itself guarantee elections free of manipulations, what is furthermore needed would be the leveraging of the genuine vote by insisting that all voters have identity cards and that they produce them at the polling booths as evidence of their identity.

ID cards are not only easy to prepare in the context of present-day technology but they also provide an instant database. This in turn offers multifaceted benefits in terms of balanced resource allocation, development planning, service delivery, women's empowerment, poverty eradication and, above all, maintenance of security and enforcement of law and order.