Staff Reporter :
Country’s left leaning parties have demanded the cancellation of the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the upcoming parliamentary polls next year.
They said that the overwhelming population of the country believed that EVMs would be used as a tool for rigging votes in the national election.
Their demands sprang in a meeting in the central office of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) in the capital on Friday.
They demanded the cancellation of the EVM project of the Election Commission, which will cost around Tk 8,711 crore during this financial crisis.
CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said, “The issue of EVM in election has got the
utmost importance in the Election Road Map instead of paying attention to election time neutral government and reforms in election management. A special intention lies here.”
Urging the people, he said, “The people have to come to the streets to establish their rights to vote and food through mass movement.”
Prince said that the opposition political parties are now facing fierce obstructions from the ruling party when people’s unity was needed to stand against the soaring price hike, repressions and attacks on party workers.
Criticising the government, he said, “The government has been trying to establish a reign of terror using state machinery. Even ruling party workers in association of law enforcers are carrying out attacks on political party workers.”
When the country is facing serious economic troubles, the foreign tours by ministers and bureaucrats have not been stopped, rather corruption and looting are unabated, he said.
He also said that the government was ignoring the demands of the left political parties and others on the issue of free, fair and credible elections.
He urged for the formation of a left democratic alternative force to resist the misrule of the government and emphaised to expedite the struggle for changing the mismanagement. Among others, General Secretary of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal Bajlur Rashid Firoz, Biplobi Communist League Member Prof Abdus Sattar, Convener of Samajtantrik Andolon Hamidul Haque, Acting General Secretary of Ganatantrik Biplobi Party Shahidul Islam Sabuj, were present.
