The Election Commission (EC) is busy counting the time for the 12th National Assembly elections as election preparations are in the final stage.

The EC has sent most of the election materials including ballot boxes to the regional and district offices of the EC. Now just waiting for the schedule announcement. The EC's engagement has increased since the countdown to the parliamentary elections began on November 1.

Meanwhile, the commission headed by Kazi Habibul Awal has informed the president about the overall preparations for the parliamentary elections on November 9. A number of possible polling dates have been presented to the President at this time.

The schedule may be announced this week. However, EC officials said that the schedule announcement on November 15 is more likely. They said that the official meeting of the EC will be held this week. The date of voting will be decided in the meeting. If for some reason 15th November is not scheduled then 16th November may be.

Sources from the EC said that on November 14 or 15, the CEC will announce the election date by addressing the nation on radio and television. EC has also spoken to the BTV Director General about this. The Commission will soon inform BTV when the speech will be recorded. Apart from this, the draft of CEC's speech has been prepared. If approved in the commission meeting, it will be final. EC has different thoughts about the schedule this time. To ensure the participation of all parties including BNP, the schedule is being changed this time too. For this reason, the commission has considered several dates for the polls.

After the election of the 11th Parliament on December 30, 2018, the first session was held on January 30. According to the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution, the vote must be held within the previous 90 days. As such, the countdown to the election has started on November 1. There is an obligation to hold elections by January 29.

Talking to Bangladesh Pratidin Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Md Ahsan Habib Khan said, “The countdown to parliamentary elections has begun. The Commission is busy with final preparations for the polls. Most of the election materials including ballot boxes have already been sent to regional and district election offices. The schedule is expected to be announced this week. Parliament elections will be held in the first week of January.”

“The issue of technology-based vote management was in the action plan of the Election Commission. Online nomination submission system (ONSS) and “Smart Election Management BD” mobile apps are a breakthrough in this continuation. Election management is also added to the era of Smart Bangladesh through this.”

“These apps will be launched on Sunday. Once the schedule is announced it will be open to all. Candidates can submit nomination papers with correct information and necessary documents very easily through these apps,” he said.

“Showdowns, processions, and violations of the code of conduct while submitting nomination papers will be prevented, besides it will not be possible to prevent submission of nominations or force withdrawal. In addition to parliamentary elections, electoral services including submission of nomination papers in any local government election will be facilitated. Election affidavit, center-related information, and election information will be available through this application,” said Ahsan Habib Khan.

“A voter can know his voter number at home through 'Smart Election Management BD' apps. Also, voters can know the area/constituency, center name and can see the picture of the center, geographical location (with map) of the center,” he said.

“Through this app, you can know the information about the division-wise seats like total voters, total seats, candidates for the seat, and detailed information about the candidates (affidavit, income tax-related information, election expenditure, and personal wealth statement). In this case, the voter can choose the desired candidate by analyzing the information of the candidates,” he added.

EC officials said, through the 'Smart Election Management BD' apps, the information of registered political parties will be known and contemporary information will be displayed in the form of 'notices'. With the help of apps, casting vote information will be known every two hours.

Apart from this, a voter will get a graphical description of the results of the previous election and the current election through the option called 'Result Analysis' along with the overall status of the election results.

(The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on November 12 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan)