5 months ago
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BNP acting president Tarique Rahman connected Saturday (December 27, 2025) completed the formalities to enlist himself connected Bangladesh's elector database and get a nationalist individuality (NID) card, two days aft his instrumentality from implicit 17 years of self-exile successful London.
The 60-year-old person of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) visited the Election Commission (EC) bureau successful Dhaka nether choky security, wherever helium provided fingerprints and iris scans for biometric enrollment, quality portal tbsnews.net reported.
He earlier submitted his elector registration exertion online, officials said.
“Tarique Rahman has already filled retired the online signifier and has travel to implicit the registration by providing his fingerprints and iris scan,” ASM Humayun Kabir, manager wide of the National Identity Registration Wing of the Election Commission, told reporters.
He is expected to person his NID paper wrong 24 hours, the authoritative said.
Mr. Rahman's girl Zaima besides completed her registration formalities for the NID card.
Foolproof information arrangements were successful spot astir the EC bureau premises, with members of the Bangladesh Army, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Ansar and constabulary deployed successful and astir the area.
According to a study successful Bengali regular Prothom Alo, Bangladesh archetypal introduced a elector database with photographs and biometric information successful 2008 during the military-backed caretaker authorities led by Fakhruddin Ahmed that followed the 2007–2008 governmental crisis.
Mr. Rahman, lad of erstwhile Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was a governmental captive astatine that time. After his merchandise from prison, helium near for London connected September 11, 2008.
As the BNP person was overseas astatine the time, helium was not included successful the elector list, and helium did not instrumentality to Bangladesh during the consequent Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regularisation to registry arsenic a voter.
After the caller elector database with photographs was introduced, the EC cancelled the erstwhile elector list.
Former Election Commission authoritative SM Asaduzzaman, who was manager of nationalist relations astatine the EC Secretariat erstwhile the photograph elector database and NID strategy were introduced, said Mr. Rahman did not motion up arsenic a elector then, quality portal bdnews24 reported.
He, however, underlined that the instrumentality allows immoderate eligible national to beryllium included successful the elector database astatine immoderate time.
Bangladesh is going to the polls connected February 12. Mr. Rahman volition contention the upcoming predetermination from his ancestral Bogura Sadar (Bogura-6) constituency, with BNP leaders already collecting his information papers connected his behalf earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the Awami League, banned by the interim authorities from contesting the elections, has raised questions connected the legality of including Mr. Rahman successful the voters' database erstwhile the last database has already been prepared.
In an nonfiction posted connected its website, the enactment claimed Mr. Rahman is "receiving 1 privilege aft another, with repeated violations of the law".
"After the announcement of the predetermination schedule, becoming a caller elector is legally prohibited; yet questions person arisen astir Tarique Rahman becoming a elector portion that docket was inactive successful effect.
"Moreover, the time was a Saturday, a play authorities holiday. So however was the instrumentality followed, and nether whose instructions?" it asked.
