Dhaka: Some 11.8 million voters who have been enrolled after 2014 are facing hurdles in availing themselves of various services as they are yet to receive their national identity (NID) cards.

The Election Commission has kept suspended providing NID cards to fresh voters for the last three years saying it will give machine readable smart cards to all the country’s adult citizens replacing the laminated ones, reports UNB.

Due to the lack of the NID card, young voters cannot avail of services like opening bank accounts and purchasing mobile SIM card as banks, insurance, and the services provided by mobile operators, foreign embassies in Dhaka and many other service providers that made the use of NID mandatory for taking their services.

The fresh voters also face problems in case of marriage registration and land sale. 

The Public Service Commission (BPSC) in June last also made NID card mandatory for applying for appearing in the 38th BCS examination, which created apprehension among many job seekers as they have no NID card.

Though the PSC retreated from its decision finally, it said the applicants will have to show their NID cards before written and viva voce examinations.

Following the PSC’s first decision, a job aspirant, Faruk Hossain, who completed MSS in Mass Communication and Journalism from Dhaka University in 2016, was worried whether he would be able to sit for the BCS examination as he had no NID card.

He said he got registered as a voter in 2014 but did not get the NID card yet. Faruk has finally been able to apply as the PSC relaxed the condition.

Marjahan Akhter who completed BBA from Eden College said she got enrolled as voter in 2015 but did not get NID card yet. ‘I cannot open any bank account or purchase mobile SIM card as I don’t have the NID card,’ she added.

Like Faruk and Marjahan, many young people having no NID card are facing hurdles in availing of many services.

The EC in 2014 halted providing laminated NID cards to young voters saying that it initiated a project for giving all voters with smart NID cards. But, the Commission had been able to provide only 2.86 percent smart cards among the voters till June 2017 starting the distribution of the 10-digit smart cards in October 2016.

The Commission blamed French digital security company, ‘Oberthur Technologies’, for the little progress in the distribution process as the company failed to provide high security featured smart cards in due time.

The EC in January 2015 signed a contract with ‘Oberthur Technologies’ for the production and distribution of 90 million smart cards by June 2016, and the deadline was subsequently extended till June 2017.

Within the extended deadline of June 2017, the French company sent some 77.3 million blank cards. Of the cards, the company personalised only 12.41 million cards and supplied 10.98 million to thana and upazila election offices.

Following the insignificant progress, the Election Commission has decided not to renew the agreement with Oberthur.

Now the EC wants to depend on local experts or companies to complete the remaining works of the distribution of 90 million machine readable cards under the EC’s Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) project.

Besides, the EC has decided to provide the remaining voters with smart NID cards as the country’s voters increased to 101.8 million.

‘We’ve an initial target to provide all voters with smart NID cards by June 2018,’ said IDEA Project Director Brig Gen Mohammed Saidul Islam.

‘EC’s own staff will soon start personalising some 65 million blank NID cards that are now in EC’s hand. And we’ll also sign a new contract with a local firm to produce the remaining blank cards,’ he said adding that Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory has already sent some sample smart cards to the Commission.

Saidul said the EC is also considering providing fresh voters with laminated NID cards from October 2017 as it will take some time to produce smart cards for them.

In 2008, the army-backed caretaker government first started providing laminated NID cards among voters following preparation of the country’s electoral roll with photographs.

The Commission in 2011 worked out a plan to provide the smart cards having 25 security features under the IDEA project, which is jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh.