EC plans to seek president’s intervention to retain NID services

The Election Commission is likely to take its dispute over National Identity (NID) cards with the home ministry to President Md Abdul Hamid.

Talking to reporters on Monday, Election Commissioner Md Alamgir said the EC will soon send a letter to the president seeking his intervention in resolving the dispute.

The government has recently decided to transfer to the home ministry the National Identity Registration wing that had been under the EC since 2006. The EC has objected to the take-over.

Meanwhile, a new law is under way to bring the NID job under the Security Services of the home ministry.

Earlier, the Cabinet Division sent a letter to the EC to hand over the NID services. The Election Commission wrote a counter letter highlighting the benefits of keeping the NID under its control.

Since the government is moving towards making a new law the EC has decided to approach the president, said Alamgir.

He said, “There is no new step in this regard. As far as I know the Election Commission Officers Association had submitted an application which we said we will send to the President following the rules.”

“We may also send a copy to the security department. That was the decision,” he said.

He said that the decision was taken 10-12 days ago.

The Election Commission Officers Association submitted a memorandum to keep the National Identity Card (NID) registration wing under the EC authority rather than under the home ministry.

If it is shifted from the Election Commission (EC), the EC officials feel that the normal process of the election will be hampered.

On October 23, the association submitted the memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal at the election building.

In response to another question, the election commissioner said, “NID is the government property. The law gave us responsibility. Now if the law wants to take it then there is nothing to stop us. However, if the government wants to take it, separate manpower and technical infrastructure will have to be created”.

“It is definitely a cost issue for the government, there is a challenge as it is a time-consuming issue. We think that even if the government wants to take it, it will take time. It cannot take it so quickly. Because it will take a long time to move from one system to another system. Like the time it takes to pass a law in parliament. It will take a long time to actually transfer,” he hinted.