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A training programme is being launched to prepare election officials for the upcoming 13th national parliamentary polls.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin will inaugurate the programme on Friday.
Between 900,000 – 1 million election officials at the central and field levels will receive the training in stages from September to December. The cost is estimated at nearly Tk 1 billion.
According to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, the elections are scheduled to be held in the first half of February, before Ramadan. The Election Commission (EC) is to announce the schedule in the first half of December.
A time-based working plan has also been made to monitor the overall progress of the vote preparations and other work that needs to be completed before and after the announcement.
As part of this programme, all officials involved in the vote - starting with core trainers and instructors - will be given training over the next few months.
SM Asaduzzaman, director general of the EC's Election Training Institute (ETI), said that core trainers will begin the training in two batches from Friday at the ETI Building in Agargaon.
“Then, the training of trainers assigned to election management will begin in early September. This programme will continue centrally and at the field level in stages over the next few months.”
The training will cover all the guidelines and to-do items for voting, including the Representation of the People Order (RPO), other laws, election rules, code of conduct, and policies.
The EC will also prepare its own election manual ahead of the training, which includes reforms to the election laws and rules.
Officials will be trained according to the existing laws and rules. If any are amended, officials will be instructed to take on the responsibility of learning about them on their own.
Asaduzzaman said that there are plans to train polling agents of political parties as well.
To create awareness about the responsibilities, duties, and to-do items according to the election laws and rules, five to 10 “master trainers” will be provided training for each party. They will subsequently train the parties’ polling agents.
About 11,000 political workers can be trained as “master trainers”.
TRAINING OF THOSE INVOLVED IN ELECTION CONDUCT
>> Core trainers: About 80 people.
>> Training of trainers (TOT) on election management: 1,534 people.
>> Upazila/Thana-based TOT: 2,100 people.
>> Training on election management: 226 people.
>> Briefing, training on the Electoral Inquiry Committee: 300 people.
>> Training of executive magistrates over the Zoom app: 800 people.
>> Training officers on Online Submission System (ONSS): 575 people.
>> Online Submission System (ONSS) third-class employees: 500 people.
>> Training of field assistant programmers of ICT Division: 650 people.
>> Online Submission System (ONSS): 1,700 people.
>> Briefing, training of executive magistrates: 1,188 people.
>> Judicial magistrate training/briefing: 663 people (estimate).
>> Result Management (RMS): 596 people.
>> Returning officers' election management briefing, training: 72 people.
>> Assistant returning officers' briefing-training: 600 people.
>> Training of Ansar and Village Defence Force officers: 75 people.
>> Electoral system awareness briefing, training: 250 people.
>> Central level training of journalists: 240 people.
>> Domestic observer training, briefing: 100 people.
>> Field-level journalists and observers training: 6,390 people.
>> Polling officers' training- 189,000 people.
>> Polling agents' master trainer training: 10,850 people.
>> Briefing, training of law enforcement officers: 50,000 people.