July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

DHAKA: Bangladesh's emergency government announced on Wednesday it had finished work on a “revolutionary” digital voters' list that will pave the way for the restoration of democracy in the graft-hit nation.

The list contains 80.5 million names and has eliminated 12.7 million “fake, fictitious, duplicate or under-age voters,” which have in the past been used by ruling parties to rig elections.

“We have the photographs, fingerprints and personal details of each of the 80.5 million voters. We have digitised the list and very soon it will be on our website,” election commissioner Shakhawat Hussain said.

“It's a revolutionary achievement. It will make vote-rigging by any party impossible. From now on there will be no vote-stealing. There will be a true reflection of people's votes, all poll results,” he said.

Backed by the armed forces, the mammoth task saw election officials travel in heli-copters to remote areas and in naval craft for the shoals and islands in the Bay of Bengal.

In urban areas, door-to-door checks were made to ensure every voter was counted and photographed, Hussain said.

The task has taken around a year to complete, cost more than 80 million dollars and involved work by some 300,000 data operators, including 25,000 army personnel.

“This is the biggest digital database prepared by a developing country and we have done it in a record time,” Hussain said.

“It's almost error-free and has at least 12.7 million fewer names than the previous list, which was full of fake, fictitious, duplicate and under-aged voters.” The emergency, army-backed government began preparing the list soon after coming to power in January 2007.

The state of emergency was imposed after one of Bangladesh's main parties, the Awami League, accused the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — which ran the last government — of rigging elections and the spat degenerated into strikes and violent protests.

Hussain said no political parties had protested over the new voters' list, which was a sign elections scheduled for December would go ahead.

“If a list has more than 10 percent of fake votes, it is easy for any influential party to manipulate the results. And it has happened in the past,” Hussain said.

The emergency government plans to restore democracy in December this year, when new elections are promised.

It will also hold local government elections in four cities and nine towns on

Aug 4.

Some major parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party Islamist alliance, say they will not take part in polls until Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia is released from custody, where she is being held on graft charges.

The government has already released Khaleda's bitter rival, Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed, as part of a deal to ensure her party's participation in the polls. Observers say Khaleda’s release has been delayed because her party is unwilling to strike any deal with the government.—AFP