A European Union pre-election observation team is set to visit Bangladesh in mid-September to assess the electoral environment ahead of the 13th parliamentary election, Election Commission Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said on Sunday.
"A pre-election observer team of the European Union will visit in mid-September. It will include three international and four local observers," he said, citing a formal communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received earlier in the day.
The EC Secretary remarked while talking to reporters about the electoral preparation at his office in the city's Nirbachan Bhaban.
He said the EU team would observe the pre-election environment and assess the EC's readiness for the upcoming parliamentary polls.
Audit Reports
Akhtar Ahmed informed that, as per legal provisions, registered political parties are required to submit the audited financial statement (audit report) of the immediate past calendar year by July 31. Of the 51 registered parties, 30 have submitted their audit reports, while 15 have sought an extension of the deadline and the rest six are newly registered.
Among the newly registered parties, one party responded, saying that they are still not yet eligible to submit an audit report based on last year. Five other parties neither responded, he said.
Now this statistical update will be forwarded (from EC Secretariat) to the Commission, which will decide on further action, said the EC Secretary.
Party Registration
The EC received 148 applications for new political party registration by the June 22 deadline, of which three were duplicates, leaving 145 valid applications.
All 145 parties were asked to submit additional documents to rectify inconsistencies.
"Eighty parties have submitted their documents. Six sought time extensions. Fifty-nine did not respond. We will place these cases before the Commission for further instructions," Akhtar said, adding that the submitted documents are now under review to verify compliance.
Voter Lists
The EC is preparing to publish two supplementary voter lists by August 10, one listing newly registered voters and another for deceased voters whose names will be removed.
The draft supplementary list of newly eligible voters—those born on or before January 1, 2007, along with a draft list of deceased voters, will be published on August 10, he said.
The Commission will accept applications regarding corrections, voting address changes, or removal of ineligible or deceased voters from the two draft lists until August 21. After scrutiny, eligible names will be included, and names of the deceased will be dropped accordingly.
The final electoral rolls list, including the supplementary data, will be published on August 31.
The EC Secretary said three separate voter lists will be released this year – the first one was published on March 2 last, the second one to be published on August 31 and the third one for newly eligible voters based on a fresh cut-off before the announcement of the next election schedule.
Now there are some 123.7 million (123732274) voters throughout the country, according to the latest finalised voter list published on March 02 last.
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