AL favours, but most parties oppose EVMs in national polls

Most of the registered political parties in the country have opposed the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the upcoming national elections while ruling Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said they want the electronic voting.  

On Tuesday, the Election Commission (EC) sat with 10 political parties at the commission building in the capital on the third and final phase of discussions on EVM use.

"We are very clear about EVMs. We want it from our consciousness. We have no objection to the use of EVMs in all the 300 parliamentary seats," Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, told journalists emerging from the dialogue.

In the dialogue, Mosharraf Hossain, a member of the Standing Committee of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), said it would not be right to decide to hold national elections in EVMs. Because getting people acquainted with EVMs is a big deal. These should be used in elections to various local government bodies and professional organisations first.

Suraiya Begum, a presidium member of the Gono Forum, said that voting through EVMs is not transparent.

"It has been recognised as defective. Therefore, EVMs should be withdrawn and arrangements should be made for voting in the next national election through ballots," she added.

Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan, general secretary of the Bangladesh National Awami Party (Bangladesh NAP), said the use of EVMs in national elections would not be right in any way.

EVMs have not yet been widely used in Bangladesh. There has been chaos in many cases when it has been used and voting has been slow. There are also allegations that one person voted against the fingertip of another, he added.

Abdul Mannan, secretary general of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, said that EVM has some shortcomings which need to be fixed first. People need to be brought into confidence.

"We are in favour of voting in the EVMs," said Dilip Barua, general secretary of the Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal. "We have to adopt the technology."

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said there has been a lot of talk about EVM. In the last two phases of the dialogue with political parties, many have spoken in favour of EVM. Many people say that it is better to have an EVM with more advanced technology. Again, many have directly said that EVM should not be used in the elections.

After hearing the discussions, the commission will come to a decision later, he said, adding that there is no risk of hacking as EVM does not have an internet connection.

Kazi Habibul Awal said, "We will hold meetings with political parties from August again and then we will discuss all issues."
In the final phase, the Election Commission had invited 13 political parties to Tuesday's dialogue but nine of them showed up.

Meanwhile, Gono Forum was invited to the first phase of the dialogue on 19 June but it did not turn up. Instead, the party representatives attended the discussion yesterday, taking the number of parties to join the final phase of the dialogue to 10.

Representatives of the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, Ganatantri Party, Workers Party of Bangladesh, Biplobi Workers Party of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sangskritik Mukti Jote also took part in the dialogue yesterday.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Liberal Democratic Party and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal did not come.

In three phases, the EC invited 39 registered political parties. On 19 and 21 June, 26 political parties were invited in two phases.

Although 18 parties were present in these two phases, eight parties including BNP did not respond.

The Jatiya Party, the main opposition party in the parliament, had spoken against the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the upcoming national elections.