Final Voter List to Be Published on August 31: EC

Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) will publish the final voter list for upcoming local government elections on 31 August, according to an official letter signed by Senior Assistant Secretary Md Nasir Uddin Chowdhury on Thursday. Instructions have already been sent to all Upazila/Thana election officers and registration officers.

The letter said the EC has undertaken an update of the voter list in view of various local government elections. Under Section 3(j) of the Voter List Act, 2009, the Commission has set 31 July 2008 as the qualifying date.

Accordingly, individuals whose date of birth is 31 July 2008 or earlier and who were registered in, or will be registered in, the voter list database by 31 July 2026 will be included in the voter list. The Commission has approved a detailed schedule for publishing the draft voter list, receiving claims, objections and correction applications, disposing of those applications, and publishing the final voter list.

Under the EC-announced schedule, 4 August is the deadline for preparing the PDF of the updated draft voter list and sending the link to the relevant registration officers in the field. The draft voter list will be published on 9 August.

Claims, objections and applications for corrections will be accepted until 24 August. Those applications must be settled by 27 August, while the deadline for incorporating decisions into the list is 28 August. The final voter list will then be published on 31 August.

The letter also said that after publication of the draft voter list, announcements should be made before or after prayers at mosques, temples and other places of worship through imams and priests to encourage the public to inspect the list and apply for corrections of errors.

The authorities were also asked to arrange public-interest publicity on the matter through local journalists and cable operators.

In addition, officials were instructed to take necessary steps to correct any wrong inclusion in the printed draft voter list under the male and female voter lists, errors related to religion, or any other mistakes.

According to the Election Commission’s latest updated data, Bangladesh currently has a total of 128,323,240 voters. Of them, 65,212,731 are male, 63,109,266 are female, and 1,243 are third-gender voters.