EC cancels 70% NID applications of expats on ground of providing false info

More than 70 percent of Bangladesh expatriates from around eight countries submitted false documents while seeking national identity cards from the Election Commission office, an official said.

To start with, NID services rolled out a year ago in eight countries, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and the UK.

An office of EC under Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) project said the EC had planned to issue National Identity (NID) cards to all the Bangladesh expatriates who will eventually be able to cast their votes in the next general election from their respective host countries.

As part of the plan, EC sought applications from the expatriates living in those eight countries. Guess what? Some 2,553 expatriates applied to the EC while only 700 got the NIDs, the official said.

An IDEA review meeting revealed that most documents submitted by the expatriates were full of falsehood.

Officials believe they may invite trouble if their identity check in those eight foreign countries begin.

At the end of December 2021 (July -December) of the current fiscal, the IDEA second phase ID card issuing project was able to spend a meagre 18.73% or Tk 23.41 crore of the entire Tk 1805.09 crore.

Meanwhile, in the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal, the ADP implementation rate was 18.61%, whereas, in 2017-18 and 2018-19 the rate was 20.11% and 20.15%, respectively.

In the meeting, the problem of NID registration of the Bangladeshi expatriates was discussed. The EC had sent 20 pages for filling up the problems of NID registration to the foreign ministry which did not respond.

Besides, in the meeting the EC also conveyed to the representatives of the foreign ministry that they are not able to provide NIDs to Bangladesh expatriates in the UK within 15 days.

In this regard the EC sought more human resources from the foreign ministry to speed up implementation of the project.

IDEA project director said a disaster recovery site will be built at Jashore IT park as the area is comparatively risk free of earthquakes.

Secretary Md Humayun Kabir of EC secretariat told Business Insider Bangladesh that more resources are needed to run the project for issuing ID cards to all the Bangladeshi expatriates across the globe.

Former finance adviser to the caretaker government, AB Mirza Azizul Islam told Business Insider Bangladesh that the expatriates badly need NIDs not for franchising, but also for smooth financial transaction at home and abroad.

How to get NID from Bangladeshi expatriates

A copy of the passport of another Bangladeshi expatriate identifying the applicant as a Bangladeshi, the statement of a blood relation living in Bangladesh with name, mobile number and NID card copy are required.

Furthermore, a declaration from the applicant that they are not registered in electoral rolls anywhere in Bangladesh, and a certificate from the local Bangladeshi mission are also needed. All Bangladeshi expatriates living abroad will eventually be able to cast their votes in general elections from overseas, as the country’s EC plans to issue NID cards to all expatriates in at least 40 countries, over the next five years.

Some  1.2 crore Bangladeshis are currently working abroad. Although coronavirus has hit every country in the world, Bangladesh sent 6,17,209 workers overseas and fetched a record $22 billion in remittance in 2021.