Redrawn constituencies: Electoral roll shows huge mismatch in voter numbers

The constituency-wise voters’ lists have shown huge mismatch between the number voters in the redrawn parliamentary constituencies.
The Election Commission on July 3 published a gazette notification redrawing parliamentary constituencies bringing changes to 53 constituencies ahead of the 10th parliamentary polls scheduled to be held by January 24, 2014.
According to the constituency-wise voters’ lists, Dhaka 19 parliamentary constituency has the highest number of 6,78,657 voters while Shariatpur 2 constituency has the lowest number of 1,52,841 voters.
Prior to the ninth parliamentary elections in 2008, Dhaka 19 constituency had also the highest 6,02,386 voters while Jhalakati 1 constituency had the lowest 1,37,091 voters.
At that time, 22 parliamentary constituencies had less than two lakh voters while Gazipur 1 and 2 had over five lakh voters.
This time, three constituencies have over six lakh voters, two constituencies over five lakh voters, 19 constituencies have over four lakh voters and 12 constituencies have less than two lakh voters each.
EC officials said the commission last time could not minimise the difference in the number of voters between the constituencies as those were delimited in 2008 on the basis of the census report of 2000.
Though the commission this time has the 2011 census report, it has not minimised the difference though the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976 stipulates that one of the criteria of delimiting constituencies would be taking cognisance of the distribution of population as in the latest census report.
The officials said the mismatch in the number of voters could have been minimised had the constituencies been redrawn on the basis of population.
Citizens for Good Governance secretary Badiul Alam Majumder criticised the Election Commission for ‘not considering population while redrawing the consitutencies’ before the polls.
‘Redrawing constituencies keeping such huge differences in the number of voters between the constituencies is meaningless,’ he noted.
The constituencies having over six lakh voters are: Dhaka 19 (Aminbazar, Tetuljhara, Bhakurta
and Savar excluding Kaundia union) with
6,78,657 voters, Gazipur 1 (Kaliakoir and Gazipur city wards 1-18) with 6,09,652 voters and Gazipur 2 (Gazipur city wards 19-38 and 43-57, and Gazipur cantonment area) with 6,71,883 voters.
Constituencies having over five lakh voters are: Narayanganj 4 (Fatullah and Siddhirganj Narayanganj Sadar) with 5,34,422 voters and Mymensingh 4 (Mymensingh Sadar) with 5,01,343 voters.
Constituencies having over four lakh voters are: Dinajpur 6, Rangpur 3, Kurigram 1 and 2, Bogra 2 and 7, Jessore 3, Dhaka 2, 5 and 18, Rajbari 2, Sylhet 1, Brahmanbaria 3, Comilla 10, Noakhali 4, Chittagong 8, 10 and 11, and Narayanganj 4.
Constituencies having less than two lakh voters are: Comilla 8, Chittagong 3, Khulna 3, Shariatpur 2, Rangpur 1, Jessore 6, Pirojpur 2 and 3 Jamalpur 2, Netrakona 5, Narsingdi 3 and Jhalakati 1.
The Election Commission instructed its
officials concerned to prepare the constituency-wise voters’ list in CD format by October 15 as part of its preparations for holding the 10th parliamentary polls.