Bangladesh pictures a better voting process
12 August 2008
A new way of registering Bangladesh's voters will ensure that, when the country goes to the ballot box, democracy is always the winner.
Rather than just recording voters' names, the new voter roll also carries their photographs, guaranteeing that one person gets only one vote and that the face of the person casting that vote is the same as the one on the roll.
This innovation is part of a range of DFID-supported reforms in advance of Bangladesh's 2008 elections. In addition to changes to the registration process, work has been carried out to get groups traditionally left out of elections to exercise their democratic right and, at long last, cast their votes.
Fingerprints, photos and signatures
When registering for this year's elections, people
have been asked to pose for a
mugshot and provide fingerprints and signatures. This "biometric" data
is then
transferred to a central computer for quick and easy reference on polling day.
The aim is to improve the accuracy of the electoral roll and stamp out practices such as registering for additional votes and the theft of other people's votes - common electoral crimes that seriously undermine democracy in Bangladesh.
In January 2007, for example, national elections collapsed in scenes of violence two weeks before they were due, after a voter roll was published containing more than 21 million wrong or duplicate names. The Election Commission was shown to have failed in one of its most fundamental duties and the credibility of the elections was destroyed.
Eighty million registered
If
Bangladesh's elections are to be truly democratic, the electoral register not
only should be free from error but should be reflective of the electorate as a
whole.
For this year's elections teams of officials travelled across the country, registering people who previously had been left out of the voting system. Amongst those captured were inhabitants of the isolated Char islands, ethnic and religious minorities, the disabled, hospital patients and even people in prison.
This work was supported by the efforts of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who went into hard-to-reach communities to raise awareness of voting and motivate people to use their votes.
Spreading the message through ralllies, loudspeakers on the back of pushbikes, eye-catching banners and leafleting campaigns, their words certainly hit home. At its peak, 500,000 people were registering every day and, by the end of June, there were 80 million names on the new electoral roll.
Watch these films on YouTube to find out how the registration process got underway:
Towards fair and credible elections
Early last year, just after an interim Government came to power, public confidence in the electoral system was extremely low. Indeed, 80% of people believed a new and accurate voter roll would be essential for the elections planned for 2008.
Just over a year later, shortly before August's mayoral and local elections, popular opinion about the reliability of the Election Commission had been transformed. Placing their trust in its ability to collect accurate data, the people of Bangladesh felt that, this time, the elections would be fair and credible.
Now, with national elections scheduled to take place in December, the country has every reason to believe that it can serve as an example to the rest of the world - a model of how to run an election that really does give a voice to the people.
Facts and stats
- The UK has contributed £10 million towards reforms to Bangladesh's Election Commission (which include the photographic voter roll). The project is worth £39 million in total and is a joint effort between Bangladesh's Government and donors.
- Surveys of the new voter roll have shown "error" rates between 1 and 2.5%, compared with error rates on the previous list of up to 20% (these errors are due largely to voters who are abroad for reasons of work).
- Biometric data collected during registration will be used to develop a national ID card, which will increase access to public services for many Bangladeshis.
- DFID gave £1 million to NGOs to raise awareness and motivate historically hard-to-reach voters. They delivered more than 70,000 days of miking, 7,000 rallies, 5,500 special meetings, 9,000 banners and 1,300,000 leaflets.
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