Staff Correspondent:

The Election Commission (EC) will finalise the updated voter roll in August ahead of the 13th parliamentary election.

Before that, a draft list will be published on Aug 10, and any corrections, claims, or objections must be submitted by Aug 21.

The EC announced the development and schedule for publishing the 2025 updated voter list’s draft and final version on Tuesday, according to its Additional Secretary KM Ali Newaz.

An amendment to the voter list ordinance granted the EC the authority to publish a draft at any time of the year.

Following this change, the commission decided to update the voter list this year through door-to-door visits.

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed had previously said the draft would be published in July.

He said, “The correction of errors in the updated list was completed by the 10th of July. During registration, 87 percent of the data was accurate, while 13 percent contained clerical errors, which have since been corrected.”

Prior to the amendment of the Voter List Act, the law required the draft voter roll to be published on Jan 2 each year, followed by the final list on Mar 2.

Ahead of the 13th parliamentary election, the AMM Nasir Uddin-led commission began updating the voter roll on Jan 20 through door-to-door visits. By June, data of an additional 4.45 million eligible voters were registered.

In the draft to be published on Aug 10, the EC plans to add 4.47 million new voters.

After removing dead voters and adding new ones, the final voter list is expected to bring the total to around 127.5 million.

The commission says the draft voter list will be displayed in open public spaces across the country, including all Upazila election offices.

After resolving the objections or corrections, the final voter roll will be published on Aug 31.