Exit NID: EC wants to work in the first half of next month

Election Commission (EC) Secretary. Alamgir said this at a press conference at the media center of the election building on Tuesday (August 26th).

"We have completed all our preparations," he said. Now only the Singapore government has to approve. We will start work as soon as they approve it.

Md. Alamgir said the number of expatriates in Singapore is low. The nearest country. Therefore, the experiments will be carried out here. Then we will move to the Middle East. Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has examined the possibility of this in Saudi Arabia. He talks with the expatriate, the embassy there. Their interest has been reported with great interest.

"We have tested the law," he said. There is no confrontation. We have finalized the policy at today's meeting. That is why we also have to amend the rules. We'll get it done soon.

EC officials say the policy is left alone to solve the problem of expatriates. Almost all other activities have already been completed. Singapore, Maldives, Britain and Saudi Arabia have already concluded their feasibility studies.

EC NID Division Director (Operations) Abdul Baten told banglanews that online applications for giving NIDs to expatriates will be taken. Those who are unable to apply online will get help from the desk at the concerned embassy. Once the policy is in place, this program will be started.

For a long time, expatriate Bangladeshis have been suffering from various problems related to NID. EC has taken initiative to supply NID through the Embassy following the directives of the Prime Minister's Office to solve their problems.

Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury said, "We have gone a long way." The preparations here are done. In the first week of August, I sent a letter to the Singapore Government asking for permission. With approval we can start working according to our plan.

She said there are many challenges alone. It is different in every country. Form-2 is going to have to change for the expatriate voters. If it is final, then we will send it to the Law Ministry. We also have a motto. That would be a genetic motto. Different challenges in different countries, we may have to do different countries for each country with different instructions.