Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain could not attend a conference in the United States as he was not issued visa on time.

Sakhawat was scheduled to attend the Oracle Open World 2011 conference from October 2 to 6 but was issued the US visa on October 2, said a press release from Election Commission yesterday.

The database of some nine crore Bangladeshi voters with photographs was preserved through the Oracle software. Election Commissioner Sakhawat was invited to attend the conference to discuss how the concerned database can be preserved efficiently.

After completing all necessary formalities, Sakhawat submitted his visa application to the US Embassy in Dhaka on September 14. A verbal note was also provided from Ministry of Foreign Affairs but the visa was not issued on time.