EC services online from September

The Election Commission in planning to introduce several new services from September, including online voter registration.

The services will allow users to access information regarding their voting centres and update personal information.

Those who want a new national ID or change their photos can also apply online.

The interface will also allow users to download forms, check the progress of their application and ask general questions.

The decision to launch the services was taken during an EC meeting on Sunday. The national ID registration wing will arrange a national workshop to gather expert views on ensuring online data security.

“We’ll hold a workshop with technology experts from Dhaka University, BUET and the Bangladesh Computer Council, said the wing’s Director General Brig Gen Sultan Md Saleh Uddin.

“We hope to launch our online services from September after we take their opinions.”

The minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Anisul Huq, had told Parliament earlier that the services for national IDs would be provided through a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

This facility would enable the collection of IDs from Election Offices at the Upazillas within a day, he said.

Brig Gen Saleh Uddin told bdnews24.com that aspirants would have to fill in a form online for registering as a voter which will be acknowledged by an SMS notification.

"The applicants would then have to submit the printed copy of the form along with necessary documents and provide bio-metric details such as photographs, fingerprints etc."

Bangladesh has over 92 million registered voters who have been given laminated National ID cards.

They carry the owners’ names, parents’ names, dates of birth, and ID numbers on one side and the residential addresses on the other.

The EC plans to introduce multi-use ‘smart cards’ by the next year instead of the laminated ones.