The five-member consultant team will complete a project document -what equipment is necessary for preparing the voter list - within next two months and in first phase and in second phase, the team would purchase the equipment. After the meeting with consultants, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul
Huda said, "countdown of the 18- month timeframe starts from today ".

Resident coordinator of UNDP in Dhaka Reneta Dessallien led the four-member expert team and another member will join the team later on. The UNDP will provide all assistance to the consultant team.

About the timeframe of election, Huda said, "we said it will take 18 months to prepare the voter list with photographs and the chief adviser of the caretaker government also said that the election would be held by 2008".

"The polls might take place before the end of the year 2008, it could be held even in August, once the voter list is completed and you will come to know the exact time within two months," the CEC told newsmen.

He, however, said, the elections to the country's pourashavas and city corporations may also be held before the general election.

"We are giving priority to voter list with photographs, not voter-identification card," he said.
According to observers, people feel the EC's entire strategy is based on delaying the election as much as possible.

In reply to a question about the government move to ban student politics, Huda said, "the government has requested us to examine the rules and regulations and to see how the student fronts can be de-linked from the mother organizations."

It is widely suspected by political observers in Bangladesh that EC's 18 month voter preparation strategy is to delay election.

@ The Bangladesh Journal