By increasing the number of teams that will register voters in phases by being stationary at voter registration camps across the country, the EC believes it will be possible to complete the task by March or April next year if the eligible people show just enough enthusiasm for visiting the camps to register their names, sources close to the commission said.

Although the EC earlier had planned to complete the field level task in 12 months by engaging 8,000 teams, it now has a changed plan to increase the number of teams to 12,000 in a bid to expedite the job, but by setting up voter registration camps instead of going from door to door. The new plan however triggered a debate about whether prospective voters will respond favourably to the new methodology.

"Of course, less time than calculated earlier will be required to complete the task as the number of teams has been increased. Besides, we have decided to prepare the voter list by setting up camps only to save time. We now hope the list will be prepared much before the expiration of the 18-month timeframe," Election Commissioner Sahul Hossain told reporters yesterday at his office.

The EC will refrain from going past the timeframe by any means, which will end in September next year, the election commissioner said.

According to the EC's original plan, the field level task was supposed to begin in early October, but according to the new plan the task however is set to begin two months earlier. If the new plan can be successfully implemented, the EC will have the voter list ready at least five to six months earlier than the deadline, and in case it fails to get the job done as early as planned, it will still have enough time in its hands to complete the task within the originally stipulated timeframe.

Asked about the EC's prediction about the number of voters on the new list to be prepared from August, the election commissioner said the number will be much less than what it was in the last electoral roll.

"The number of voters will be approximately 7.5 crore," he said adding that there will be a little scope for duplications and inclusions of fake voters on the new list.

Election experts however fear that a significant number of eligible citizens might not get registered as voters due to their unwillingness to visit the registration camps.

The number of voters was 7.48 crore on the voter list prepared in 2000 and the number stood at 9.13 crore on the nullified fresh voter list prepared by the EC in 2006, the number again rose to 9.34 crore on the updated voter list prepared right before the ninth parliamentary election got stalled.

The previous electoral rolls triggered enormous controversies over the numbers as various quarters and election experts alleged that the numbers had been highly exaggerated due to duplications, inclusions of fake voters, and for retaining the names of dead persons on the lists. The sceptics alleged every previous voter list had at least one crore fake names on them.

The EC deployed about three lakh staff each time for preparing fresh voter lists in 2000 and 2006. According to the previous official procedure a very large number of enumerators would first collect the particulars of prospective voters by going from door to door across the country, then supervisors would check the authenticity of the information about at least a random 10 percent of the applicants. A draft voter list then would be published inviting claims and objections from the public including the registered persons before publication of the final list.

According to the new methodology of preparing the voter list by staying at the registration camps, the EC will engage some 48,000 staff dividing them in 12,000 teams, which will collect information about a voter when he or she will visit the camp. Then the voter list with photographs will be prepared and simultaneously national identity cards will also be issued only to registered voters.

PLAN TO MOTIVATE CITIZENS
The EC is planning to launch a massive campaign to encourage citizens to visit the camps to be registered as voters.

Apart from the print and electronic media, the EC now plans to engage private mobile phone operators and advertising agencies in the campaign for urging eligible citizens to register their names as voters by visiting the camps. Elected representatives to various local government bodies and the defeated candidates in their last elections will also be involved with the process, sources said.

"We will initiate effective measures to motivate citizens to be registered as voters and we hope all eligible people will be registered," Election Commissioner Sahul Hossain said.

He said each team will stay at a camp from 7 to 10 days to complete the task. "If necessary our staff will visit some houses to register the names of disabled and ill citizens who will not be able to visit the camps," he added.

"We have yet to chalk out the details of the plan," Sahul said.

A pilot project will also be started soon to help the EC find out the problems it might face when the field level work will start in full swing.

Meanwhile the government is set to promulgate an ordinance providing legality to the project of issuing national identity cards, which will be prepared simultaneously with the voter list, sources said.

The chief election commissioner on Monday said producing national identity cards will be made mandatory for getting some government services, in a bid to motivate the people to get registered as voters.