Bangladesh's Election Commission (EC) plans to make a mobile number registered in the applicant's own name compulsory for applications to correct a national identity card (NID), to stop fraud. Once it takes effect, no one will be able to apply for an NID correction using a number registered to someone else. The EC is in talks with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to verify the numbers.
EC sources said one mobile number can currently be used for eight NID correction applications. Under the new system, a number can be used only for its owner's application, checked against BTRC records through an application programming interface (API). The EC is also considering a separate arrangement for people seeking corrections from abroad.
Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, system manager at the EC's NID wing, told Dhaka Mail on Monday (2 November) that the method would be introduced as soon as the discussions with BTRC are concluded.
The move follows a Dhaka Mail report of 25 August which found that a name-correction request had been filed in 2026, with face verification completed, for one Ali Akbar, who died on 5 March 2020; a death certificate was among the papers attached. EC sources say fraud rings are misusing technology to file corrections without the person being present.
To speed up registration and corrections, the EC is also discussing API links with nine bodies, including BTRC, the BRTA, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, the immigration and passports department, the primary and secondary education authorities, the health services division, the birth and death registration office and the marriage and divorce registration department. Correction requests are settled in six categories: Ka, Ka-1, Kha, Kha-1, Ga and Gha.
Under section 18 of the Electoral Rolls Act, obtaining an NID with false or concealed information is punishable by up to a year in prison, a fine of up to Tk 20,000, or both. For citizens, the first step before applying for a correction is now to check that a mobile number is registered in their own name. The report is by Dhaka Mail's Md Mehedi Hasan Hasib.
Photo: Nurhossain46 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Dhaka Mail
Comments
(0)