Rohingyas may try to enrol in voter lists in Dhaka: EC

After its vigilance in Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, the Election Commission has now warned its voter registration workers that Rohingya refugees may attempt to become registered voters in the Dhaka city.

The EC has been updating the voter rolls in Dhaka and Chittagong cities as well as in 120 Upazilas starting from Monday. This will continue till mid-November.

Driven out of Myanmar due to communal violence, the Rohingya Muslim refugees took shelter in Bangladesh about 24 years ago. Since then many have become voters in the country.

This came to public notice after some Rohingyas carrying Bangladeshi passports were arrested abroad for various crimes.

By some accounts there are some 500,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh besides the 25,000 living in two refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

At a recent meeting of the central committee on voter rolls updating, the Chittagong divisional commissioner said Rohingyas were moving to other parts of the country to become voters since the EC was alert in his region.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, the other commissioners, the EC secretary and several senior government officials were present at that meeting.

The records of the meeting said Rohingyas were trying to become voters with the aid of fraudsters and they would try this in Dhaka as well.

EC Deputy Secretary Matiar Rahman said on Sunday the commission would hold a meeting on the Rohingya issue and the problem of less number of female voters.

Senior Election Commissioner Abdul Mobarak and EC officials have submitted their report after field inspection of the voter roll update work.

Commissioner Mobarak has said in his report that Rohingyas had registered as voters in Patia, Chittagong. He blamed Upazila and district election officers for not being alert about the matter.

Missing female voters

The report said female voters had a 40 percent less enrolment rate than males.

At the central coordination committee's meeting, officials said problems with collecting birth certificates, travelling to registration centres, the practice in rural areas of misreporting young women's age for the sake of marriage, asking married women for their parents' national IDs were among the many reasons why women did not turn up this time to enrol.

Registration workers had not gone from door to door this time to collect information, they said.

Election Commissioner Abu Hafiz instructed EC officials to investigate the reasons behind the problem and consult local administrations for solutions.