The Election Commission (EC) has taken stringent measures to halt any attempt by Rohingya people in the country who are likely to produce fake documents to get enlisted as voters claiming themselves as Bangladeshis, officials said.

There are some efforts and the district Election office identified some fake documents though they are yet to know whether they are Rohingya citizens or not, they said, reports the UNB.

‘It’s a tough job to update the voter list in a district like Cox’s Bazar which is hosting huge Rohingya population. Because, here Rohingyas take attempt to get enrolled as voters apart from Bangladeshis,’ Upazila Election Officer Shimul Sharma told UNB.

Huge Rohingyas, including over 400000 new arrivals since August 25, are living in the district.

The official said the EC is showing ‘zero tolerance’ in this regard and EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmad and Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury had three emergency meetings in the past weeks.

Two of the meetings were held in Cox’s Bazar DC office while another was held at Chittagong Circuit House. Professionals, members of law enforcement agencies and government officials also attended the meeting and gave their opinions.

Talking to UNB, a senior EC official said the Commission has identified 32 upazilas under three districts as a ‘special zone’ where EC fears Rohingyas might try to get into the voter list.

All the upazilas under Cox’s Bazar are enlisted in the identified 32 upazilas.

The official said upazila coordination committees and upazila special committees have been formed in 32 upazilas to look into the matter and scrutinize each form without any mistakes.

The Commission provides a specialised form apart from regular voter enrolment forms asking the applicants to provide some additional information, including information on his or her last two educational institutions (where they studied) in these 32 upazilas.

‘We’ve taken all the measures so that no Rohingya can get enrolled through producing fake documents,’ another official told UNB.

He said they are now scrutinising the forms with fake documents and found some fake birth certificates submitted with the forms in few unions (under Cox’s Bazar).

‘We’ll file cases against them under the Voters List Act 2009,’ he said adding that the scrutiny will continue till September 21.

Responding to a question, the official said some 300 forms have been cancelled for various reasons, including false information.

An official preferring anonymity said in the past Rohingyas went abroad taking Bangladeshi passports thorough fake documents and earned bad name for the country as they got involved in various criminal activities abroad.

‘The government has streamlined the process so that such case doesn’t repeat,’ he added.

Any citizen who was born on or before January 1, 2000 is eligible to get enlisted as a voter.

According to an EC Secretariat estimate, some 3.5 million people are likely to get enrolled as possible voters.

The photographs and fingerprints of the possible voters will be collected in three phases by November 5 next.

This year the EC has taken special measures for 32 upazilas instead of 20 ones to prevent Rohingyas from being voters during the voter list updating programme.

The 32 upazilas include all eight upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district, all seven upazilas of Bandarban, eight upazilas (except Nanniarchar and Kaukhali upazilas) of Rangamti, and seven upazilas --Boalkhali, Patiya, Anwara, Chandanish, Satkania, Lohagara and Banskhali- of Chittagong district.

The draft updated voter list will be published across the country on January 2 to receive complaints over it till January 17.

And the final voter list will be published on January 31 next after disposing of the complaints, if any.

According to the latest updated voter list published on January 31, 2017, the country has a total of 101,843,667 (some 101.84 million) voters.