OPPOSITION, MEDIA SHARPEN ATTACKS ON VOTER LIST

UNCLAS DHAKA 002841

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KISL BG
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION, MEDIA SHARPEN ATTACKS ON VOTER LIST

REF: DHAKA 2681


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Election Commission released its draft
voter list on May 3, and gave the public until May 21 to
submit corrections. The opposition Awami League and the
media harshly criticize the list as having excess voters and
numerous omissions. Prominent NGOs believe the problems are
as much the result of sloppy execution as political
manipulation. The AL insists the list is the result of
"election engineering" and that if elections go forward with
using this list, it will not participate. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Local media report significant anomalies in the new
voter list, with "stranded Pakistanis," "Indians," and
Rohingya refugees being included and Hindu communities and
other AL supporters being excluded. In one prominent case,
the AL MP from Mirzapur is not the list, which prompted a
brief siege of the local election office. Another widely
reported case is 15,000 registered voters listed as living in
17 villages long since destroyed by the Jamuna River. On May
9, Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina accused the BDG
of "election engineering," claiming in Parliament that 20
million "fake voters" had been added and that 700,000 AL
supporters had been omitted. The AL says it will not
participate in elections held under a new voter list. At the
same time, AL organizing secretary Akhtaruzzaman told us the
AL is still urging its grassroots network to check the lists
and add missing supporters.


3. (SBU) Several NGO monitoring groups told us that problems
with the voter list stem as much from sloppy execution by the
Election Commission (EC) as overt political manipulation.
They cited partisan and poorly trained registration workers
as the main problems, and attribute many of the errors to a
change in the remuneration system for enumerators which paid
them by the area instead of per voter registered. The whole
process, they stressed, was rushed, marked by numerous
management errors, and poor oversight from the EC in Dhaka.


4. (SBU) The Appellate Court is expected to rule soon on the
legality of the new voter list, or whether the EC should use
the 2001 list as its starting point. If the Court rules
against the EC and throws out the voter list, one NGO
official speculated that controversial Chief Election
Commissioner M.A. Aziz might resign.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: The media and opposition are focusing on
mostly anecdotal evidence to claim widespread political
manipulation of the new voter list, but reality may be more
nuanced. In the case of the phantom villages, some say the
former residents are in fact alive and well in nearby areas.
Once NDI and local NGOs complete their systematic reviews of
the lists, we should have a firmer feel for whether the
problems are widespread or intentional.
CHAMMAS