Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) can be used in maximum 70-80 constituencies in upcoming 12th National Assembly elections. For this, the Election Commission has applied to receive money from the Ministry of Finance to repair 1 lakh 10 thousand machines.
After the 16th meeting of the Commission on Wednesday (March 15), Election Commission (EC) Secretary Md. Jahangir Alam told reporters this information. He said, ‘According to the information received from the machine tools factory, we will try our best to repair 100,000 machines and use them in the 12th parliamentary elections. We can finalize the number (how many EVMs will be used in how many seats) subject to receipt of finance ministry funds. This decision has been finalized in the commission meeting.
Regarding the decision to send a letter to the ministry regarding the money exemption for the maintenance of the EVMs in hand, the EC secretary said, ‘A letter will be sent to the finance ministry. If the payment is agreed, then in the next step we will be able to tell in how many constituencies we can use EVMs.’
When asked whether maximum 60-70 seats are possible, EC Secretary Jahangir Alam said, ‘The number depends on the EVM. How many of them we can make usable, depends on the number of constituencies to vote in EVMs. The commission has always said about our capacity, maximum EVMs can be used in 70-80 seats. It will be tried. We have not deviated from this decision.’
He further said, ‘Voting will be done on EVM in as many seats as possible. The number of voters in the constituencies varies from place to place. If smaller areas are taken, then more seats can be covered. If the area is large, EVM should be used in fewer seats. The EC secretariat will finalize these issues and present them in the commission meeting.