Staff Reporter :
The BNP on Thursday claimed that ruling Awami League was now depending on machine instead relying on the people of the country.
“AL targets to return to power again by depending on Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), because it does not believe in the franchise of people,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a press briefing at the party Chairperson’s Gulshan office.
The BNP leader said that most of the political parties and experts had opposed the use of EVM in polls, finding massive options to rig votes through the machine.
“We want to know why the Election Commission all on a sudden has taken decision to purchase EVM secretly and hurriedly? What is its plan? Does the Commission wants to be sure to make its chosen party victorious in the election?” Questioned Fakhrul.
EVM has a poll card where all the records of voters would be preserved. It has a duplicate poll card also. The result of votes can be changed by using those duplicate polls cards in a pre-planned way, the BNP leader said.
The BNP Secretary General said, “It seemed the government paves the way to the EC to loot people’s money in the name of purchasing EVM machines and make them (ruling party) win in the polls.”
He warned of severe consequences in manipulating polls by using EVM.
The BNP leader has stressed on the Election Commission to shun the initiative, calling it ‘democracy demolishing and misleading’.
BNP standing committee members Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, L. General (rtd) Mahbubur Rahman, Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, among others, were present.
