With controversy still going on over the EC decision compelling people to apply for getting listed with a raft of documents, the preparation for the voter-listing task remains in disorder due to a lack of proper directives and planning of the EC Secretariat, sources said.

Field level election officials and electoral experts feared the initiative will ultimately turn futile again, like the preparation of the fresh voter list, putting holding of the next parliamentary elections on time in uncertainty.

In accordance with the EC procedure, intending voters will have to submit a receipt of municipal tax or house rent or payment to local guards, and an affidavit of proof of age or an attested copy of SSC certificate with the application on a prescribed form.

Field level election officials said a large number of eligible voters may remain out of the list while huge fake ones and those who died in the last few years will be in the existing electoral roll prepared in 2000.

According to an EC calculation, over one crore people have become eligible for voting since 2000.

Meanwhile, a number of district election officers said those who had earlier contacted the election officials for registering their names are now unwilling to get listed because of the strict provisions.

"Many people will not be able to submit such required documents along with the application even if the election officials visit door to door," a district election officer told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

On deletion of fake names from the existing list, the election officials said they cannot delete any name from the list unless any application is filed. "But who is going to apply for deleting names of voters who are fake or have died in the last few years?" a district election officer said.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz on April 25 said an NDI survey in 2005 reported that the voter list of 2000 contained 6.4 million ghost voters. Another .97 million voters have died since then, he reckoned.

He quoted a European Union (EU) letter addressed to previous CEC MA Syed to have pointed out the existence of as many as 13 million ghost voters, while a US State Department report this year saw 8 per cent fake voters on the 2000 voter list.

If the NDI survey and the EU allegation are correct, then names of over one crore fake voters will have to be deleted from the existing list.

The task for preparing the voter list would not have been so difficult had the EC followed the proper procedure for revising the existing voter list in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict, electoral experts observed.

For revising the voter list, enumerators would visit door to door and list eligible voters and delete the names of those who have died.

But the EC in its decision on June 14 asked people to apply for being included in the list and deleting names from it. Electoral law experts termed the procedure illegal.

Sticking to its guns, the EC has repeatedly declined to meet the demands raised by the ruling BNP, main opposition Awami League and other political parties and electoral experts for visiting door to door.

It, however, decided last week to send officials to village union parishads and wards in city corporations and municipalities for distributing voters' registration forms to ensure that eligible people get listed.

LACK OF PREPARATION
District election officers recruited as registration officers for the voter-listing job could not make adequate preparation for the task starting tomorrow as the EC Secretariat did not pass its directives on time.

A number of district election officers said they are yet to hold any meeting with the assistant registration officers to chalk out a plan for the task.

"The Election Commission took the decision on June 14, but I have received the EC Secretariat circular on June 27," a district election officer said, adding that there is not sufficient time now for holding any meeting with the assistant registration officers.

The EC Secretariat meantime issued an order cancelling the weekly holidays of the divisional, district and upazila election officers on Friday and Saturday. It, however, spared the assistant registration officers who are government employees.

The EC Secretariat has not even allocated money for the remuneration of the officials, nor did it specify whether they will be provided with the remuneration. The publicity urging people for getting listed is also very poor, sources said.

CEC Aziz and the secretary of EC Secretariat yesterday declined to talk to the media about the latest situation over the preparation of the voter-listing task.

Staff unwilling to do voter listing again Over a hundred field level officials in the capital, who were recruited last year and employed during the preparation of the controversial 'fresh voter list' from January to May this year, yesterday expressed