Almost 60% of EVMs kept in Rangpur found to be defective

A total of 6035 electronic voting machines out of 10,759 stored in Rangpur region have been found to be defective.   

Project officials informed the Election Commission after their evaluation ahead of Rangpur City Corporation elections to be held on December 27.

Before the 2018 national elections, the Election Commission bought 1.5 lakh EVMs at a cost of about Tk 4000 crores. The Commission stores EVMs in  its regional offices across the country after their use in various elections.

The project officials informed the Election Commission after monitoring the EVMs in Rangpur through a letter.

The letter informed that most of the EVMs have been damaged by termites. Most of the sensitive EVM equipment has become useless due to carelessness and negligence.

EVMs are being sent from Dhaka to conduct the vote in Rangpur city elections on December 27 as the equipment there cannot be used before maintenance, EC informed.

In such a situation, the project stakeholders have requested the Election Commission to take initiative to save the EVMs stored in different parts of the country.

In that letter, 8 more recommendations have been given for the preservation of the highly sensitive EVMs.

Candidates can submit their nomination papers to the returning officer and assistant returning officer till November 29. Returning officers will scrutinize the nomination papers on November 29 and December 1. December 8 has been set as the final date for withdrawal of candidature for Rangpur City polls.

Earlier, the Election Commission also decided to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) and CCTV cameras in the election.

Voting will start at 8:30 am and continue till 4:30 pm without any break.

Director General of Election Training Institute Abdul Baten will serve as the returning officer of Rangpur City Election.

A total of 3,93,994 voters cast their votes at 193 centres to elect the Rangpur mayor, 27 general ward councillors and 11 reserved ward councillors.