DHAKA, Dec 9, 2024 (BSS)-  BNP’s Electoral Reforms Affairs Committee convener and party’s Standing Committee member Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan today underscored the need for using artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare an accurate voter list for the next national election.

“Actually, we want an accurate voter list and AI can help in this regard,” he told a press conference at the party chairperson's Gulshan office here.

BNP Standing Committee members Nazrul Islam Khan and Salahuddin Ahmed and chairperson's adviser Ismail Zabihullah were present.

Abdul Moyeen said there is no need to go door to door for preparing a voter list in a country of 180 million populations because it is very time-consuming and there is a high possibility of mistakes in these manual process.

If AI can be used, the name of the deceased will be automatically deleted, he said.

Moyeen Khan also sought the cancellation of the supplementary order brought by the previous government to amend the RPO.

He presented a 10-point reform proposals including amending some rules in election management, revising the code of conduct for political parties and candidates and the policy for registration of political parties, upgrading the election observation policy, increasing the capacity of the Election Commission, and the code of conduct for the media.

BNP has submitted the reform proposals to the Election Reform Commission formed by the interim government, he said.

“Our reform proposal is to create a level playing field, so that people can truly cast their votes and elect their real representatives,” Moyeen Khan said.

Abdul Moyeen Khan said the previous government has done a lot to take the election result in their favour by using the administration.

“Our point is that we have sought amendments to the rules made by the fascist government so that government officials and employees cannot play any political but neutral role in the election,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Nazrul Islam Khan said it is possible to hold election without delay by following the proposals of BNP.

“We have proposed nothing new for which the EC should go through a reformation. We have only proposed for strengthening the Election Commission and empowering it along with brining some amendment to the existing laws,” he said.

“So, there is no need to make much delay in holding election by following the proposals placed by BNP,” he added.

Salahuddin Ahmed said the reform proposals of BNP were well thought out which were prepared based on experts opinions.

Most of our proposals are related to legal reforms, he said.

Practically, the tasks that the Election Commission takes time for updating the voter list, checking for errors, appointing election officers, delimitation etc, should not take more than 2 to 3 months time to complete all tasks, ” he noted.

He hoped the government will not take more than 3 to 4 months to complete all the other reforms in the areas of administrative, judicial, law enforcement.

In response to a question, Salahuddin Ahmed said the scrapping of caretaker government system was the biggest obstacle to hold a free and fair election.

He described issue of delimitation and excluding those involved in misdeeds from the election process as “symptoms” of decease saying the real disease is the absence of a caretaker government.
 
If the caretaker government is reinstated, all these symptoms will no longer exist there, paving the ways of a fair election.