BangladeshÂ’s army-backed authorities moved on Sunday to overhaul the countryÂ’s voting system, photographing thousands of would-be voters in a bid to stamp out cheating. A general election scheduled for January was postponed due to political violence amid accusations of vote-rigging and corruption by the two main parties. A state of emergency was subsequently imposed by the interim authority and all political activity banned. A re-run of the poll is expected by the end of 2008. The pilot project to overhaul the registration process involves taking photographs and obtaining fingerprints of eligible voters. The information could also be used for identification cards. The project would run for three weeks and will cover some 45,000 eligible voters in the Sreepur district, 70 km north of Dhaka, said Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda. Huda said if the project was successful the model would be used to create a national votersÂ’ list.
The most recent list made in 2006, which was to be used in the postponed Jan 22 election, was found to be grossly flawed. The Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs said the list contained more than 12 million fake entries. The army has set up 30 camps in Sreepur to assist election commission officials with the project. “This is a very good step, we had been asking for it for many years,” said Bakhtiar-Uddin Mridha, who voted in the past three elections. “I saw many voters going back without casting their ballots, because someone else with the blessing of corrupt poll officials or powerful candidates had cast it already. “The new system will hopefully end such abuse.”