"The election will be held in 2008. But we have yet to announce anything specific. We will announce a complete roadmap charting the path to the ninth parliamentary polls," the CEC said in a news briefing marking the conclusion of the pilot project for gathering field level experience in preparing a voter list with photographs and national identity cards.

"We will specify the time required to complete the tasks including preparation of the voter list," the CEC added.

The pilot project, which began on June 10 in Sripur municipality area of Gazipur, ended yesterday registering 42,716 residents as voters and simultaneously issuing national identity cards to 40,559 of them.

The EC will now finalise the procedure for preparing the national voter list with photographs, evaluating the Sripur experience.

Earlier, the EC announced that the field level task for simultaneously preparing the voter list and the national ID cards will begin this month from Rajshahi City Corporation area.

The CEC said the pilot project successfully put to rest all doubts regarding the feasibility of a voter list with photographs.

Election Commissioner Sahul Hussein said nobody will be able to cast a fake vote once the voter list with photographs is prepared.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said the name of Sripur municipality will be etched permanently in the history of introducing digital electoral rolls in Bangladesh.

The CEC on April 5 announced an 18-month timeframe for preparing the voter list with photographs and for completing other preparatory tasks for holding the stalled ninth parliamentary election. Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed later announced that the ninth parliamentary election will be held before the end of 2008.

Five consultants, including two who came from abroad, have been working with documents to prepare the voter list with photographs and the national identity cards simultaneously.

"They [the consultants] have completed their tasks. Now we will finalise with them a timetable for completing the rest of the preparatory tasks for holding the ninth parliamentary election," CEC Huda said.

Narrating the success of the pilot project, the CEC said many feared that people would not visit the voter registration centres for getting their photographs taken, many even feared that women would not come out of their houses to register themselves as voters. "But all apprehensions have been proven unfounded as the numbers of male and female registered voters are almost equal," the CEC declared.

The CEC also said the EC will amend the electoral rolls ordinance before the field level task for preparing the voter list begins this month. "The existing electoral rolls ordinance does not allow preparing a voter list with photographs. So, we will have to amend the existing laws," he said.