Bangladesh

The new and internationally acclaimed photo-voter list created ahead of the December 2008 elections in Bangladesh will now have 502 permanent centers to enable regular maintenance and updating at the local level.

The Netherlands Government and the UNDP Bangladesh signed an agreement in the presence of the Chief Election Commissioner Dr. ATM Shamsul Huda for the implementation of the new project titled “Construction of Server Stations for the Electoral Database” (CSSED). The project will construct centers in 481 Upazilas, 16 Thanas and five regional centers at divisional level to further the Election Commission’s efforts to decentralize and enhance the public’s access to, and interaction with local Election Offices.

Ms. Bea ten Tusscher, Ambassador of the Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka and Mr. Stefan Priesner, UNDP Country Director signed the agreement on behalf of the Netherlands government and UNDP.

This project is jointly funded by the Government of Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and the DFID (Department for International Development). The total value of the project amounts to 30.8 million US Dollars (approximately 213 crore taka) with 5.9 million US Dollars (approximately 41 crore taka) from the Netherlands Government, 8.02 million US Dollars (approximately 55 crore taka) from DFID and 16.9 million US Dollars (approximately 117 crore taka) from the Government of Bangladesh.

“It gives me great pleasure to be here today to sign on behalf of the Netherlands Government an agreement with UNDP for the project of constructing server stations for maintaining the electoral database. I am confident that this project will make a significant contribution to sustaining the achievements of the Bangladesh Election Commission including the maintenance of the internationally acclaimed photographic voter list. We hope that this partnership will help sustain the efforts for democratization in Bangladesh and further strengthen its political process,” said the Netherlands Ambassador Ms. Bea ten Tusscher.

The signing of the partnership comes in the wake of the successful implementation of the voter list project by the Bangladesh Election Commission that registered more than 81 million voters in just eleven months. UNDP and eight development partners (European Commission, DFID, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Korea) supported the creation of the highly accurate and credible photographic voter list that was used in the recent national and local elections. The new project is in response to the need to ensure that the Election Commission has the capacity to maintain and update the list.

“I am grateful for this commitment from the Netherlands, which builds on the country’s already substantial engagement, in partnership with UNDP, in Bangladesh. This project will strengthen the independence of the Bangladesh Election Commission and enable the public to enquire about voter registration and other electoral matters at the local level. I commend the Commission’s continued commitment to strengthening the Election Commission and increasing the public’s access to the electoral process,” said UNDP Country Director Mr. Stefan Priesner.

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