The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday called for adopting the latest technology in the task to update the voter list, instead of the traditional door-to-door campaigning ahead of the 12th national parliament election.
鈥榃e want a true and accurate voter list to be prepared. Instead of a door-to-door campaign, we propose using computing, and AI [artificial intelligence] to do the job,鈥� BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan said at a press conference.
BNP鈥檚 committee on election commission arranged the press conference at the party chairperson鈥檚 Gulshan office in Dhaka.
Moyeen said that if a computerised upgraded system could be adopted, it would help update the voter list accurately without wasting time. 鈥楢 computerised system can easily identify when someone turns 18 and automatically remove the names of those who have passed away. There鈥檚 no need for a door-to-door campaign to update the voter list by checking all 18 crore people of Bangladesh.鈥�
The BNP leader also presented a 10-point reform proposal, including amending the RPO, some rules in election management, revising the code of conduct for political parties and candidates, changes to the policy for the registration of political parties, upgrading the election observation policy, increasing the capacity of the election commission, and a separate electoral code of conduct for the media.
He said that they had already submitted those reform proposals to the government-formed election reform commission. 鈥榃e prepared reform proposals aiming to create a level playing field so that people can truly cast their votes and elect their real representatives, not dummy or fake representatives.鈥�
Another BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said that the government could arrange the national election quickly by implementing the proposals their party had made.
鈥榃e have talked about strengthening the election commission, setting up an election secretariat, and giving them sufficient powers. We also proposed amending and reforming the existing laws... These do not require much time,鈥� he said.
BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed suggested that it should not take more than three or four months to arrange the election by carrying out the necessary reforms related to the election process.