DHAKA (AFP) — Election authorities in emergency-ruled Bangladesh said Friday that preparations were on course for polls later this year and they expected to publish a full voter list by August.
"Compilation of the voter list is progressing in full swing towards the target completion date of August," said Election Commission official S.M. Asaduzzaman, adding it may even be finished ahead of schedule.
The alleged inclusion of millions of fake voters in an earlier electoral roll led to elections being cancelled in January 2007 and a state of emergency imposed.
Since then the mainly-Muslim country of 144 million people has been ruled by a military-backed interim government.
Another election official, Humayun Kabir, said draft lists had already been published in 11 cities and the commission would begin publishing the names of voters in rural areas later this month.
The interim government took power on January 12, 2007 promising to clean up Bangladesh's notoriously corrupt politics before reinstating democracy later this year.
It has arrested more than 150 leading politicians, including the country's two most recent prime ministers, as part of its anti-graft crackdown.
The 2007 elections were cancelled after months of political turmoil over opposition Awami League allegations that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had sought to rig the polls.
The new voter list will include photographs in a bid to prevent further allegations of electoral fraud.
Democracy had been restored in Bangladesh in 1990 after years of military dictatorship.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
