Officials and employees of the Election Commission on Thursday formed human chains under the banner of Stand for NID, demanding the cancellation of the move to transfer NID operation to a separate registration entity, at the EC secretariat and its regional offices across the country.
Convener of Bangladesh Election Commission Officers Association Mohammad Monir Hossain on Thursday called for the NID operations to remain under the EC鈥檚 authority at a human chain formed in front of Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital.聽
鈥楾he Election Commission is the custodian of all the personal information of the voters. So, the NID should remain under the authority of the Election Commission鈥� We are giving time until Tuesday to take visible step in this regard,鈥� he said.
Monir Hossain, a deputy secretary at the EC secretariat, said, 鈥業f this move is not cancelled, we will go on work abstention from 9:00am to 12:00pm from March 19.鈥�
The EC staff will observe the work abstention titled Operation Halt from 9:00am to 12:00pm from Wednesday at the EC secretariat and its other offices throughout the country.
On March 5, the EC staff submitted a memorandum to the chief election commissioner, demanding visible steps from the EC and the government to cancel this initiative.
Later, the EC sent a letter to the government on March 9 arguing to keep the NID services under its authority,
The interim government has initiated the fresh move to bring a number of civic services, including birth registration and national identity registration services, under a single
entity named the Civil Registration Commission, causing frustrations among the EC鈥檚 officials and employees.
On March 3, a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee was held in the cabinet division to review the draft of the Civil Registration (Commission) Ordinance, 2025.
A representative from the EC secretariat was also present at the additional secretary-level meeting.
In 2023, the ousted Awami League government enacted the National Identity Registration Act, 2023 to transfer the national identity registration operation from the Election Commission to the Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs.