Officials and employees of the Election Commission (EC) are going to stage demonstrations on Thursday in protest against the move to transfer national identity (NID) services to a separate registration commission.

As part of the demonstration, they will form human chains under the banner ‘Stand for NID’ at the EC Secretariat and its regional offices across the country.

Convener of Bangladesh Election Commission Officers Association Mohammad Monir Hossain on Wednesday announced the programme at a press conference at the EC Secretariat in the capital.

“We’ll observe the ‘Stand for NID’ programme from 11am to 1pm tomorrow at the EC Secretariat and its offices throughout the country,” he said.  

Monir Hossain said they (EC officials) submitted a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner on March 5 demanding visible steps from the EC and the government to cancel this initiative. 

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The EC agreed with them and sent a letter to the government on March 9 arguing to keep the NID services under its authority, he said.

“Despite receiving a response from the commission, we have not received anything from the government. So, we announced this programme as our demand was not met by March 12,” said the EC official.

The current government has initiated the fresh move to bring a number of civic services, including birth registration and national identity registration services, under a single entity named the ‘Civil Registration Commission’, causing frustrations among the EC’s officials and employees.

On March 3 last, a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee was held in the Cabinet Division to review the draft of the 'Civil Registration (Commission) Ordinance, 2025'.

A representative from the EC Secretariat was also present at the additional secretary-level meeting.

In 2023, the previous Awami League government enacted the National Identity Registration Act, 2023 to transfer the national identity registration operation from the Election Commission to the Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs.