The Election Commission (ED) on Friday started the distribution of smart national identity (NID) cards in 27 districts of the country.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda opened the distribution process through video conferencing from the Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital, reports the UNB.

Deputy commissioners and district election officers from eight districts - Gopalganj, Bogra, Patuakhali, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Pabna, Gaibandha and Netrakona — joined the video conference, reports the UNB.

In the last month, the EC decided to complete the distribution of smart NID cards across the country by December 2018 with a view to providing all voters with the cards before the next general election.

The EC earlier started the distribution of smart NID cards in the areas of the country’s 11 city corporations after launching the distribution process in October 2016.

The areas where the distribution of the machine readable cards was opened on Friday are Kurigram Sadar upazila, Lalmonirhat Sadar, Panchagarh Sadar, Gaibandha Sadar, Nilphamari Sadar, Dinajpur Sadar, Thakurgaon Sadar, Bogra Sadar, Joypurhat Sadar, Pabna Sadar, Meherpur Sadar, Bagerhat Sadar, Narail Sadar, Pirojpur Sadar, Patuakhali Sadar, Jhalakathi Sadar, Barguna Sadar, Tungipara of Gopalganj, Shariatpur Sadar, Netrakona Sadar, Habiganj Sadar, Sunamganj Sadar, Noakhali Sadar, Bandarban Sadar, Khagrachhari Sadar, Cox’s Bazar Sadar, and Rangamati Sadar.