Shift in Responsibility for National ID Registration in Bangladesh: From Election Commission to Home Ministry

The Bangladeshi Cabinet has given final approval to a law that will see responsibility for the registration of national identity numbers transition from the Election Commission to the Ministry of Home Affairs. This move is part of the newly ratified 'National Identity Registration Act 2023', which was approved during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday.

Under the new legislation, each Bangladeshi citizen will be assigned a unique national ID number, which will serve as their primary identification. Registration for this unique ID can be completed shortly after birth, as per the Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain's statement during a post-meeting press briefing.

The government plans to provide all the required machinery and software for this new process, with registrars setting up offices as they deem necessary. The Security Services branch of the Ministry of Home Affairs will oversee the entire registration process once the law is fully enacted.

The Cabinet secretary further clarified that the new national ID numbers will be given to citizens along with their birth certificates and will remain unalterable. For those who already have ID numbers under the existing system, their numbers will not be affected by this change.

In the wake of this responsibility shift, the Election Commission will concentrate on compiling the voter list. For citizens who currently lack a National ID number, they will be allocated new ones under the revised system. Once assigned, no other form of number identification will be required.