They also urged the EC to start the task of preparing the voter roll without wasting time and added that the election should not be delayed for preparing national ID cards.

Shushashoner Janney Nagarik (Shujan) arranged the roundtable discussion at the Jatiya Press Club titled, "Preparing of voter list: Evaluation of proposed system."

"Voter list is the portal of democracy, that's why it is necessary to prepare a voter roll without flaws," Prof Muzaffer Ahmed, president of Shujan, said.

Stressing the need for door-to-door visits, he said "It would be wrong if the voter list is prepared without going to the voters' houses."

Prof Muzzaffer also observed that differences in opinions might prevail regarding whether the photographs of voters would be taken at their houses or at the voter camps (voter registration centres).

The task of preparing the voter roll should get going as soon as possible, he added.

In his speech, former adviser to the caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan said, "The voter list must be prepared with photographs of voters and the field level election officials should go door to door while preparing it."

"In order to prepare a flawless voter roll, the photographs of voters are a must," Munira Khan of Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (Fema) said.

Muhammad Jahangir of Centre for Development Communication observed that preparing a voter list is a continuous process and therefore, the EC should make arrangements so that any person over 18 years of age can register his or her name in the list.

ASM Abdur Rob of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) said, "At the present time, it cannot be true that our women and girls would not allow taking their photographs for voter list."

Suggesting that the EC make door-to-door visits to prepare the new voter list, Prof Abdul Mannan said "I myself will not go to voter camps for registration and like me there are many people who will not visit voter camps to register their names."

Urging the EC to enrol hermaphrodites as voters, Joya Sikdar, a leader of hermaphrodites, said that they too want to cast their votes as citizens of the country.

In his keynote paper, Shujan Secretary Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar said that the voter list with photographs is important for checking fake votes.

He also stressed the need for going door to door of the voters for preparing the voter list instead of setting up voter camps.

Dr Alam said he feared that the EC might messed up their main task of preparing a flawless voter list if they (EC) pay attention towards preparing national ID cards.

Salma Ali, a human rights activist, Dr Sayed Anwar Hossein, Prof of Dhaka University, AH Mofazzel Karim, former secretary, Zafarullah Chowdhury of Gono Swasthya Kendra among others also spoke at the discussion moderated by noted columnist Syed Abul Maksud.