EC sees 70% rise in allocation in election year

In the proposed national budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, the allocation for the Election Commission has seen a significant increase of 70 per cent ahead of the 12th general election.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented a budget of Tk 7,61,785 crore for the upcoming fiscal year in parliament on Thursday.

For the fiscal year 2023-24, the EC Secretariat has been allocated Tk 2,406 crore, compared to Tk 1,423 crore in the revised budget of the outgoing fiscal year.

The major portion of this budget will be utilised for the upcoming 12th parliamentary elections and upazila parishad elections. The parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place at the end of December or the beginning of January, along with various local government elections throughout the country.

The tasks to be carried out by the Election Commission in the fiscal year 2023-24 include organizing the 12th general elections, six city corporation elections, nine municipalities’ elections, 454 Upazila Parishad elections, and 100 Union Parishad elections.

Additionally, the Election Commission will be responsible for centrally and field-level National Voter’s Day celebrations, updating the voter list with photos, preparing, printing, and distributing paper laminated national identity cards, as well as providing high-quality smart national identity cards.

Furthermore, efforts will be made to provide citizen registration and national identity cards to individuals below the age of 18, and registration and smart national identity cards to expatriates residing abroad.

EC planning for election as per roadmap: CEC

The Election Commission is taking action plan as per a road map it prepared for the upcoming national election, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Thursday.

“We have already prepared a road map for the next parliamentary elections. Accordingly, we are developing our action plan and we are proceeding as per the scheduled date,” he told Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Iwama Kiminori when he paid a courtesy call on the CEC at the Election Commission Secretariat.

The Japanese envoy discussed various issues related to the upcoming parliamentary elections, according a press release sent by Shariful Alam, director(Public Relations) of the EC secretariat.

“Changes need to be made in a few areas regarding demarcation. The changes are at the final stage. We will make an announcement by the next week,” the CEC said.

He also describe elaborately how the presiding officers, polling officers, election-related government officials, law enforcement agencies will work on the day of the election.

“We were able to hold a fair election in Gazipur few days ago. There was no problem, we hope that we will be able to conduct the national election in a free and fair manner, we are working towards that goal,” he added.

About sending foreign observers for the election, the CEC said, “We will invite foreign observers. If the observer teams come, we will take preparations accordingly.”