Election Commission to share national identification data with police, RAB

The Election Commission (EC) will sign an agreement with two law-enforcing agencies in Bangladesh to allow them access to national identification data for tracking down criminals.

The police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) will now have access to the considerable data on voters generated by the commission.

“This will play a huge role in identifying criminals and verifying information to prevent terror, trafficking and fraud,” said Brig Gen Sultanuzzaman Md Saleh Uddin, director general of EC’s National Identification Registration Wing.

The Police and RAB will be able to access 16 of the 30 pieces of information collected from citizens, he said.

The EC approved the proposal for the agreement on Tuesday last week.  

The Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the passport department under the home ministry have been using EC's data on voters after entering into similar contracts.   

Police in their request to gain access to the database mentioned that the information would help them to identify criminals, investigate cases, verify a person’s permanent and present addresses, identify travel history, prevent criminals to flee abroad, prevent international terrorism and human trafficking.

Verifying a potential employee’s identity, including his passport number and other information could be easily achieved by using the database.

RAB, in their application mentioned that their criminal database at present provides information that helps to identify suspected criminals and investigate criminal cases. However, the additional voters’ information from the EC database would speed up their work.

So far, at least 75 institutions including financial institutions and telecommunication organisations have asked to sign agreement with the EC for using the NID database.

 “An approval has been given to sign an agreement in exchange of a one-time fee with seven institutions in May. The list includes Special Branch of police, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Department of Social Welfare,” said Brig Gen Saleh Uddin.

Department of Social Welfare has told EC that a software is being developed to carry out the census for disabled. The department would provide unique ID taking relevant information from the database. This will also augment the credibility of the database.

Ministry of Religious Affairs mentioned that the database would help them in verifying the citizenship and other information for those going for Hajj.

The Election Commission has kept the option open for data verification for both individual and institutional level for specified fees. However, the provision for using the database by signing a deal for a one-time fee has also been kept open.

Saleh Uddin said : “Initially the interested institutions would be given connectivity once they pay the one-time fee. In a few months it will be open to individuals.”

The EC database contains data of more than 96.2 million people. The database has information like the person’s name, address, parent’s name, date of birth, occupation, education, passport and TIN numbers, fingerprints and thirty other categories of information.

At least 16 categories of data could be accessed and verified after the agreements are done.