At a roundtable they demanded appointment of a new CEC and election commissioners on the basis of a consensus among all political parties and suggested that the civil society members could prepare a list of impartial and honest persons for those posts and forward it to the president for consideration.

They also suggested that a parliamentary committee could also do the same.

The discussants at the roundtable came down heavily on the CEC saying that soon after his appointment he started taking decisions unilaterally and violating laws. They criticised the CEC for appointing partisan people as enumerators for preparing the voter list.

The speakers argued that the month-long revision process that the Election Commission (EC) started yesterday is inconsistent with both the laws and the Appellate Division's judgment. The EC's present way of revising the existing voter list prepared in 2000 will not yield a fair voter roll, they said.

The past EC decisions and personal behaviour of its commissioners only created new controversies deepening the doubts. Thus, the commission appears to have lost the trust and confidence of a large portion of the population, they said.

The speakers also emphasised separation of the EC Secretariat from the Prime Minister's Office, state funding for election, introduction of voter ID card, transparent ballot box and electronic voting system to ensure free and fair elections.

"The CEC is a constitutional post and his neutrality should be beyond doubt, but his actions have proved just the opposite," eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain told the roundtable on complications over voter list and the role of those concerned.

The daily Prothom Alo, Shushashoner Janney Nagarik (Shujan) and The Daily Star jointly organised the roundtable at the latter's conference room in the city.

Kamal Hossain, also president of Gono Forum, observed that the country is now facing a serious challenge in preparing a reliable electoral roll that has become a stumbling block for holding parliamentary elections on time.

He said the stalemate was created when CEC MA Aziz unilaterally appointed enumerators on political considerations. "His actions show that the youth wing of the BNP has been entrusted to do the job of the enumerators," he said.

The EC appears to be incapable of carrying out its constitutional mandate of holding free, fair and timely elections, he said, adding, "We should send an appeal urging the CEC to resign from his post to be replaced by an honest and neutral person to restore public trust and confidence in the commission."

Prof Muzaffer Ahmed, Justice Naeem Uddin Ahmed, former advisers to caretaker government ASM Shahjahan and M Hafizuddin Khan, veteran journalist and columnist ABM Musa, columnist Syed Abul Maksud, Muhammad Jahangir of Centre for Development Communication, Zafarullah Chowdhury of Gono Swasthya Kendra, Advocate Sultana Kamal of Ain O Salish Kendra, Munira Khan of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (Fema), Prof Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University, former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, Shujan Secretary Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, among others, spoke at the roundtable.

Presenting the keynote paper, Dr Badiul Alam said the revision of the existing voter list as contemplated by the EC would keep many eligible voters out and include many fictitious ones, making the revised electoral roll utterly unreliable.

Although the EC decisions are convenient and will serve it well, it will not serve the cause of preparing a dependable electoral roll, he said, adding that the decision is impractical because it is not conducive to preparing a reliable electoral roll.

By EC's own account, 1.75 crore voters have increased between 2000 and 2006 while the 2000 electoral roll contained 65 lakh fake voters. So, it will be impossible to make these huge corrections to make the electoral roll reasonably reliable with only 6,400 functionaries within one month, Badiul Alam observed.

"It is also not reasonable to expect that the vast number of illiterate voters will travel miles to go to local election offices to include their names, request corrections or lodge objections," he said, adding that this sort of updating may create unprecedented opportunities for including fake voters in the supplementary roll.

He said one can also challenge the validity of the continuation of the registration and assistant registration officers appointed during the preparation of the fresh electoral roll for the new task.

Moderating the roundtable, Prof Muzaffer Ahmed demanded that the fresh voter list the EC had prepared ignoring the HC order be made public so that the pattern of the list could be identified.

"It can also be identified if there are fake voter lists," he said, adding that people have the right to know the list even though it will not be used for election purpose.

He proposed preparing a voter list under General Information System (GIS) on the basis of the number of voters in every constituency. The trouble people are facing for the voter list today will not exist any more once one such voter list is prepared, he added.

Stressing the need for creating awareness about election, he said as much as the people know their rights so will they try to realise those.

Justice Naeem Uddin said the procedure the EC is maintaining for preparing the voter roll is illegal. The commission has made the simple issue of preparing a voter roll very complex, he added.

He also demanded that the EC make the draft voter roll public.

Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said upazila parishad (UP) chairmen and members in villages have lost interest in the voter list and do not actually know how the task of its preparation is being done.

Imams have been entrusted with the work ignoring the representatives of the local government, he said, adding that the UP chairmen and members should be assigned for the job.

He said there is still enough time and so, a resolution of the civil society should be made and sent to the prime minister, main opposition parties and the CEC for a solution to the voter list controversy.

Muhammad Jahangir suggested publication of a well-written statement represented by the largest possible number of civil society members and professionals in newspapers to create pressure on the CEC and the two election commissioners for resignation.

Zafrullah Chowdhury said all candidates of the parliamentary elections should submit accounts of their assets. Public awareness should also be created so that people get more interested in including their names in the voter list, he added.

Referring to the recent speech of the PM, ABM Musa said the PM did not mention anything about the CEC in her speech. "It proves the source of the strength of the CEC," Musa said, adding that CEC Aziz will not resign despite opposition movements and demands from the civil society members.

"This is a political issue and should be solved politically," he commented.

Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru said non-compliance of the HC orders and spending a huge amount of public money for no use constitute criminal misconduct for which the CEC should resign.

The Awami League leader said his party would not take part in the next general elections if the CEC and election commissioners do not resign or are not removed.

Editors of the daily Prothom Alo and The Daily Star Matiur Rahman and Mahfuz Anam welcomed the guests and also spoke on the occasion.