44 lakh new voters on updated list

The total number of voters rose to 9.98 crore this year with more than 44.32 lakh new voters included in the electoral register. 

Apart from including the new names, the Election Commission dropped the names of 7.35 lakh people who had died, according to a statement issued by the EC yesterday. 

Of the new voters, 23.32 lakh are male and 21 lakh female.

The EC yesterday released the final electoral roll at upazila election offices, EC's Secretary Sirazul Islam told The Daily Star.

The updating of the electoral register began on July 25 last year and continued until the year end.

The draft of the updated electoral roll was made public on January 2. It was available at union parishad and municipality offices, upazila election offices and district election offices across the country.

The commission then received complaints and recommendations from people until January 17 for necessary amendments. 

The authorities disposed of complaints and made amendments by January 22. After completing all the procedure, the EC released the final list, said the EC official.

The commission for the first time collected information about citizens aged 15 and above but only those, who were born on or before January 1, 1998 have been included in the electoral roll.

Those, who will become 18 years in 2016, will be included in the list next year. The process will continue like this in the coming years.

Earlier, data of citizens of 18 years or above were collected. 

Information about below-18 citizens has been collected to prepare their national identity (NID) cards, EC officials said.