Ruling party men chosen for making new voter list

Most of the supervisors are supporters of either ruling BNP or Jamaat-e-Islami, Magura Awami League Secretary Md. Altaf Hossain claimed while talking to this correspondent on Wednesday.

They are teachers of non-government colleges and madrasas, chosen for the job on political links, he alleged.

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He said officials of Magura District Election Office (DEO) did not consult with local opposition leaders before finalising the lists. "They have selected their men as part of a blue print to rig the election", he said.

The Election Commission (EC) is a constitutional body and it is supposed to work neutrally. "We are not interested to interfere in its activities and if it does anything out of biasness, it would be unfortunate for the nation", he said.

Central Joint Organising Secretary of Jatiyo Party (Ershad) Hasan Seraj Suja said, most of the listed supervisors are non-government college teachers, madrasa superintendents, and the enumerators are teachers of government primary schools, all appointed under political influence during the 4-party alliance rule. Neutral performance can not be expected from them, the JP leader claimed.

Both the AL and JP leaders said that protest would be lodged after getting reports from grassroots level during preparation of voter list.

When contacted, District Election Officer however said, "We had no option but to follow the criteria set by the EC in preparing lists of officials and workers to make a new voter list.

"We did not consult either opposition or ruling party leaders as we were not directed by the EC to do so", he said.

"It is not possible for us to know who among the appointed supervisors and enumerators are politically biased or not. We are committed to make a correct list of voters", the Election Officer said.

According to sources in Magura DEO, 1475 enumerators, 380 supervisors and 45 Assistant Registration Officers (AROs) have been recruited to prepare the voter list.

The DEO has recruited government and government primary school teachers as enumerators and upazila level officials, lecturers of non-government colleges, headmasters of government primary schools and madrassa superintendents as supervisors.

Training workshop of field level officials will be held next month. The work on preparation of voter list will begin on January 1.