The Election Commission has suspended its decision to issue more than 10,000 election observer cards to a little-known non-governmental organisation, People’s Association for Social Advancement, ahead of the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum scheduled for February 12.

Quoting EC secretary Akhtar Ahmed, the chief adviser’s deputy press secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad Majumder shared the information at a briefing of the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing.

The briefing was organised in front of the state guest house Jamuna in the capital to inform the media about the outcome of a meeting on election preparations.

Azad Majumder said that an NGO named PASA had claimed that it would deploy 10,000 election observers. Following this claim, the Election Commission conducted inquiries into the organisation.

‘After verification, the EC could not be satisfied with the organisation’s capacity. Therefore, distribution of observer cards to PASA has been suspended,’ he said.

He added that no political affiliation of the organisation has been found so far, but investigations are still ongoing.

The Election Commission’s decision came a day after the publication of a report titled ‘One-man “PASA” to deploy 10,000 election observers’ in a national daily.

The report revealed that the organisation operates from a single room of a house, which is the home of the organisation’s executive director, Syed Humayun Kabir.

The report found that he is the sole person running the organisation, despite its claim of deploying over 10,000 observers for the election and referendum. The incident sparked widespread criticism.