We're focused on elections, not NIDs: CEC 

A day after the Cabinet approved the National Identity Registration Act 2022, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said that the Election Commission is not bothered about National Identity Cards (NID) but focused on elections.

"It is not our concern if the authority of NID issuance is taken away from the commission. It is a matter of the state, the government and the parliament. We have nothing to do with it," the CEC told reporters at the Election Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon area Tuesday (11 October).

The Cabinet yesterday (10 October) approved the National Identity Registration Act 2022 at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with a nod to shifting the NID registration service programme to the Security Service Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

The previous commission headed by KM Nurul Huda wanted to keep the National Identity (NID) programme under its jurisdiction citing NIDs to be directly associated with elections.

Kazi Habibul Awal said the commission will have a transparent voter list in hand and conduct the elections accordingly. 

"We will deal with the voter list and raise the issue if the list is not transparent. The commission is more concerned about whether or not the election will be held on EVMs and if there is any scope of using fingerprints in case of error in EVM devices."

He said, "NID is the by-product of our voter list, not vice versa."

The CEC also appreciated the government's move to issue NIDs right after the birth of a child. 

The Electoral Commission prepared a photo-based voter list in 2008. On the basis of which, the national identity card was given to the citizens. 

At present, 164 institutions, both public and private, are receiving information support from the NID server reserved by the EC.