"I can say in light of my experiences that anybody may show his willingness to get enlisted on the voter list. But it is difficult to think that people will go to the election offices to delete names from the list," Rashid Sarkar, who was the secretary to the Ministry Of Food And Disaster Management, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Referring to his experiences, Abdur Rashid said fifty percent of the eligible people in Dhaka city might remain out of the voter list due to the complex procedure currently being followed by the EC.

"I personally believe, the voter list should be prepared following the previous procedure and it should be prepared by going from door to door if all including major political parties demand so."

All the political parties including Awami League and BNP and also legal experts have been demanding to update the voter list by going from door to door. But the EC has been ignoring the demand so far.

Amid lukewarm response from the people, the EC on July 1 started the task of updating the voter list asking people to come to the offices of the EC officials for amendments, deletions and inclusions of names on the voter list.

About the ongoing task of updating the voter list, the newly appointed secretary said a fair voter list through updating the existing one is only possible when all the political parties and the people cooperate with the task.

He said this is the first time the voter list is being updated in a major scale. "As a layman I believe, people of our country are not so conscious that they will go to the election offices to be enlisted on the voter list," he said.

The post of the secretary to the EC Secretariat remained vacant since January last. A joint secretary to the EC Secretariat was in charge of the posts of the additional secretary and secretary since the erstwhile secretary, SM Zakaria, had been appointed as an election commissioner on January 16.

The government however in last February appointed a secretary to the commission's secretariat, but the official declined to join the post.

Abdur Rashid yesterday however said he had not yet received any circular issued by the establishment ministry regarding his new appointment.