Election Commission (EC) employees have announced an 'Operational Halt' program to retain control over the national identity (NID) card services.
EC staff made the announcement during a sit-in program outside the Election Building at Agargaon in Dhaka on Thursday morning.
They demanded the repeal of the National Identity Registration Act, 2023 by Tuesday (March 18) to restore NID services under the Election Commission's authority. If visible progress is not made by the 18th, a half-day 'Operational Halt' will be observed from 9 am to 12 pm on Wednesday (March 19) at all EC Secretariat and field offices.
At 12:30 pm on the same day, a press conference will be held at the Election Commission's media center to announce the next course of action, they declared.
In this regard, Mohammad Monir Hossain, convener of the Bangladesh Election Commission Officers' Association, stated, "If the law is not repealed and apparent progress is not made to keep NID services under the EC’s jurisdiction by Tuesday, a three-hour Operational Halt program will be observed on Wednesday."
He added that NID services would remain suspended during the three hours of the Operational Halt program.
From 11 am on Thursday, EC officers and employees held the 'Stand for NID' program outside the Election Building in Agargaon to demand that NID services remain under their control. Officials and staff from the IDEA-2 project also joined in solidarity.
The sit-in program was also observed outside the EC Secretariat and in offices across the country from 11 am to 1 pm, resulting in a nationwide suspension of NID services during that period.
Bd-pratidin English/FNC
