Smart NID card delivery faces delay

The distribution of machine-readable National Identity (NID) cards is beset with uncertainties as the Election Commission (EC) nears the deadline to deliver 90 million of smart cards among the citizens.

The deadline ends this December.

Over the past seven and half months, the EC distributed 1.8 million cards, comprising just 2 per cent of the total number of cards. That means the authorities will have to deliver the remaining 80.82 million cards in the next seven months.
The EC officials said meeting the deadline in December is quite impossible. 

An election official, involved in the card distribution, said delivery of the smart cards began on 3 October last year. Initially there were no long queues, but now a person has to wait in line for long.

EC sources said the card distribution has now become difficult as the French firm which supplies the blank cards has failed to provide an adequate amount of blank cards in time. Scarcity of the printing machines, difficulties faced by the public, and incorrect voter identities have also caused delays.

In 2014, the Election Commission signed a Taka 8 billion contact with a French firm Oberthur Technologies for 90 million smart cards.

The EC sources said after repeated failures to meet the deadlines, the distribution of the cards started in 2016. Meanwhile, the duration of the project has been extended by one and a half years. The government allocated Tk 800 million for distribution of the cards. If this fails, the EC has to increase its investment, the sources added.

Those who were enlisted as voters within 31 January 2014, will be given the cards. 

The National Identification Card registration office's director general brigadier general Saidul Islam told Prothom Alo that various initiatives have already been taken to distribute cards to the voters by December. 

Scarcity of card printing machines

A sources at the smart card printing project said they have just 10 printers for this purpose. As many as 18 more printing machines are needed to meet the deadline.

Meanwhile, the EC secretariat has filed a proposal to the authorities concerned not to take fingerprints of all 10 fingers and eye irises to make the delivery process easy.

The EC's secretary Mohammad Abdullah said, "We have to deliver 90 million cards by December. A proposal has been submitted not to take the prints of all the fingers and eye iris in order to meet the deadline."
New voters and uncertainty 

The EC officials said, meanwhile, nearly 10 million youth have been registered as new voters.

No one could say anything about delivery time of their smart cards.

Distribution of the existing paper-printed NID started in 2007. 

Later, the government decided to hand over smart NID cards that include ten finger prints and eye irises of the cardholders.

*This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Toriqul Islam.