Staff Reporter :
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said, most of the political parties have expressed their opinion against the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
He said it while delivering wellcome speech to political parties in EC’s ongoing talk-series with the parties.
CEC said after taking responsibility of EC, the discussion on EVM use got momentum in the country. People have talked it about positive and negative role. We have limited knowledge and experience about the EVM. We have already done a lot of works over the EVM. Now we all know about the machine.
Kazi Habibul Awal said during previous two meeting with political parties, few parties supported EVM and few against its use. Few political parties have recommended use of modern technology to make EVM more effective.
He said few political parties have directly opposed the use of EVM saying that they won’t take part in the polls if EVM is used in election.
“We will take a decision after consulting with all political parties. We will ultimately have to take decision in this regard,” he added.
Yesterday was third phase of political parties sitting with EC where 13 political parties including Bangladesh Awami League attended the programme.
Previously, the Cumilla City Corporation polls was held on June 15, where the voting took place as a trial under the new Election Commission.
Besides, glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the Cumilla city polls led to confusion among voters which caused long queues at many voting centres.
Meanwhile, some voters of Ward No. 19 claimed that the EVMs used at the Newra M I High School polling station had only Awami League’s “Boat” symbol on display to choose from.
At present, the EC has 1.54 lakh voting machines, with which it is possible to hold vote in about 100 seats.
In 2011, the then CEC ATM Shamsul Huda introduced EVM voting for the first time. At that time, they made a machine from BUET for Tk 12,000. But that machine failed in the 2015 Rajshahi City Corporation elections. As a result, the Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed led commission decided to make a new and better EVM by eliminating all the machines taken from BUET.
KM Nurul Huda’s commission made more advanced machines worth Tk2 lakh from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory.
