Dhaka, Nov 6 (IANS) The man at the centre of Bangladesh's electoral storm is Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz, who has been asked to officially step down but is neither willing to quit nor update the voters' list that the Supreme Court has described as "flawed".

As Bangladesh prepares to go to the polls in January, the Election Commission (EC) Sunday informed the caretaker government that it is not possible to correct the mistakes in the controversial voter list due to constraints of time.

"After wasting at least six months in the voter listing job, the EC now plans to hold the upcoming parliamentary election using the 'flawed' list as it maintains it does not have any other alternative," The Daily Star newspaper reported Monday.

The commission communicated its decision to President and Chief Adviser Iajuddin Ahmed through its secretariat.

Earlier, the president had summoned the EC secretary in the wake of intense anxiety among advisers over the updated rolls, the newspaper said quoting official sources.

"The president enquired whether we could detect and cut out the fake names or any duplication in the updated voter list. I told him that we don't have adequate time in hand. We could have taken such steps had there been more time ahead of the polls," Abdur Rashid Sarkar, secretary to the EC secretariat, told reporters on his return from Bangabhaban.

The official said mistakes could be corrected only if brought to notice. A door-to-door survey was not possible.

The council of advisers sits on Monday to discuss the issue further.

Retired judge Aziz has cited time constraints in not carrying out a full-fledged updating of the electoral rolls.

The matter was taken to the high court and later to the Supreme Court, and Aziz defied court directions.

The Awami League-led opposition alliance has alleged that the number of voters, placed at 913 million as a result of the exercise carried out by the EC is "unusually high", even granting the normal population growth.

It says the EC has included bogus voters that are likely to vote for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that ruled the country till 10 days ago.

Asked officially to step down last week, Aziz challenged an advisor, dispatched by the president, to show if there was anything in the constitution that empowered a caretaker government to remove him from the constitutional office he holds.

He was ready to be fired, but would not quit on his own.

He is being firmly supported by the BNP that had brought him to the office and has urged the president "not to disturb" him.