Dhaka, Dec. 8 (Reuters): The Bangladesh election commission began a week-long effort today to overhaul the list of voters, which an election watchdog says contains millions of erroneous names, ahead of January’s parliamentary elections.

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) said last week, following a sample survey of voters, that the current list had more than 12 million names entered in error or by repetition.

Election commission secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar later said the commission would seek NDI’s assistance while updating the list.

“This time we hope the country will have a correct voters’ list,” an NDI spokesman said today.

Sheikh Hasina, leader of a 14-party alliance, today asked her followers to closely monitor the drive to correct the voters’ list. “Go to all election offices across the country ... to make sure that only genuine voters are enlisted,” Hasina told her followers today.