Although there is a chance to malfunction, but manipulating EVM is virtually impossible, commented the technologist and author Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal.
He made the remarks after attending a meeting with technology experts, researchers and university teachers on Wednesday, May 25 at the invitation of the Election Commission to learn more about the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
This technology researcher wanted to know about the various aspects of electronic voting machine by applying dummy vote in the Election Commission building.
While talking to journalists, Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal said that it is not possible for any machine to be 100% perfect. However, we can say how much EVM has improved and if there is any problem with this machine, there is a way to solve it. If someone tells me to make a 100% perfect device, I will not take up that project. If I am asked to make a device which might have problems but the problems can be fixed; then I will agree. There is so much in EVM. There are ways to protect data at different levels.
EVM has no place to influence the outcome of the vote. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal said that it is almost impossible to go to the level to influence the results. At the beginning of the operation of this machine it is possible to see what is inside. There will be polling agents of different parties in the election. It is also possible for them to test.
With special coding, the vote of one symbol is not likely to go to another symbol in EVM, he said. Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal further said, I have also seen the circuits. It is virtually impossible to influence the results here.
The meeting was attended by about 30 people including the IT team of the EVM-affiliated EC, former and current directors of the project, former and current director generals of the NID wing, and technical experts of the university. Prominent technology and mathematician Dr. Mohammad Kaikobad, BUET Professor Matin Saad Abdullah and Dr. Md. Mahfuzul Islam, Asia Pacific University teacher Alok Kumar Saha, BMTF director Major General Sultanuzzaman Md. Saleh Uddin and others were present at that time.
CEC Kazi Habibul Awal, Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retired) Ahsan Habib Khan, Begum Rasheda Sultana, Md. Alamgir, Md. Anisur Rahman, Director General of National Identity Registration Division AKM Humayun Kabir, iDEA-2 Project Director Brigadier General Abul Kashem Md. Fazlul Quader and other concerned people answered various questions of the experts.
