The Election Commission has yet to determine the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the National Election as it is a political decision, said Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.
The EC will begin the use of EVMs after it is supported by the law, political quarters and stakeholders, the CEC said. The EC will use a lottery to pick polling centres among a few of the 300 parliamentary constituencies up for grabs in the coming elections, he said.
Huda made the remarks on Monday during the inauguration of an EVM Training Programme for election officials at the Election Training Institute on Monday.
He said there is still much work to be done before the EVMs are used in the general election.
“The law has been just presented to the government; it will be scrutinised by many agencies--- the finance ministry, the cabinet and the parliament.”
The EVMs will be used in the general election only if the government and parliament find it suitable and amend the law accordingly, he said.
According to the constitution, the EC has to conduct the Eleventh Parliamentary Election between October 30 and January 28. There is a possibility the election will be held near the tail end of December, the EC suggested.
The Election Commission has already approved the proposal to amend the Representation of the Peoples Order 1972 in order to pave the way for the use of EVMs in the general election alongside the traditional printed ballots.
The issue is being processed by the cabinet and the law ministry before it will be presented as a bill before parliament. The RPO amendment proposal will be sent to the law ministry on Monday, EC secretary Helaluddin Ahmed had previously said.
The BNP and many other political parties are against the use of the EVMs in the election, while the ruling Awami League supports the idea. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the EVM ‘should not be forced upon’ the people.
“We want to begin its use at a limited level; to see if there is any system loss in the technology. We can immediately cease the use if any issue occurs,” she said at a press briefing on Sunday.
The CEC affirmed the prime minister’s statement on Monday.
“We will use it randomly throughout the country if the government passes the law and we have a proper environment to use it,” said the CEC.
He explained that some of the 300 parliamentary constituencies will be chosen through lottery for the experimental use of the EVM, so no question should arise about the transparency of the process or about partiality.
“If we’re allowed to use the EVMs in 25 constituencies, we won’t pick them but will do a random lottery among the 300 constitutions,” he said.
The CEC claimed that the EVMs have improved technologically since their first use in 2010. The EC plans to use the EVMs in 4,571 unions, 332 municipalities and in 491 upazilas in several phases in future.
Using the EVMs in the election will save money, claimed Huda. He also said it will be accepted as there is no scope of fake votes in the EVMs.
The present discussion in the political arena on the EVM is positive, said the CEC Nurul Huda, bdnews24 reported.
“Many questions have been raised on the EVM; they (political leaders) want to know about many of these related issues,” he said.
The CEC believes it is ‘natural’ to have some pushback when a new technology is adopted. The positive side of the use of EVM will reach voters, political quarters and the candidates when training and campaigning is done properly, he said.
“It is unfortunate that the Election Commission still has to use those gunny sacks, horse carts or rickshaw vans to carry the election accessories; we take them to remote places and guard them, being scared of the goons who may show up any time and stuff ballots inside the boxes,” he said.
The initial cost of the EVM will be high as the EC needs to buy the machines. But there will be a smaller number of accessories needed once the machines are bought, he said, adding that these machines can be used multiple times and save money in the election process.
