Staff Reporter :
The political parties of the country have mixed opinions on the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in next parliamentary election. But there is no political pressure on the Election Commission (EC) about the use of EVM at 150 constituencies in next Jatiya Sangsad election, said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal.
He said there is another reason for using EVM that the EC wants to prevent any kind of rigging in election to make it free, fair and credible manner and acceptable by all.
The CEC came up with this claim on Wednesday while talking to newsmen at the Nirbachan Bhaban.
Earlier on Tuesday, the commission had decided to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at 150 constituencies in the next parliamentary election. There will be no crisis regarding EVMs in the next election, he assured.
“The decision to use EVMs is our own. The EC, not the political parties, will manage the voting. It is the big responsibility of the EC to organise the election. The EC will ensure that voting in elections can be free and fair. We have considered those who will come to vote. What the political parties have said was not our main concern,” said Kazi Habibul Awal.
“However, their [political parties] statements were taken into consideration. At the same time lakhs and crores of voters come to the voting centres to exercise their right to vote. To make sure they can vote better, we have taken this decision after a long discussion,” he added.
From the outset, we told that we were trying to examine the reliability of EVM. We took opinions from different parties and technical experts. Following that we decided to use EVM at 150 constituencies in the next parliamentary election,” he added.
When asked about the apprehension of the crisis over the decision of casting votes in EVM, Habibul Awal said, “Let’s wait to see what crisis is going to happen. We are not capable of predicting whether there will be any crisis in the next national parliamentary election.”
The EC held dialogues with 28 registered political parties out of the total 39 in July last. Nine political parties, including BNP and its alliance, boycotted the dialogue while two failed to take part.
Among the political parties participating in the dialogue, 15 parties opposed the use of EVMs. On the other hand, 11 political parties, including the Awami League, voted for it. Although the BNP and its alliance boycotted the dialogue, they too opposed the use of EVMs at various times.
