We have no hesitation about EVMs, we are confident said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal. He said, we do not see any technical glitches in EVM. We want all parties to participate in the elections, it will create a balance. Then it will be convenient for us to conduct elections.
The Chief Election Commissioner affirmed it after a dialogue with Jatiya Party (JP) and National Awami Party on Monday.
He said that the EC is also working on the details of the EVM. Here we see no technical glitches. The commission is looking into whether such kind of manipulation in EVM, voting by card is possible. But the matter of misappropriation was not found. If a voter pushes his finger (biometric) and matches it, the symbols of all the candidates will appear on the EVM screen. Then the ballot will be opened. There will be 40 seconds time. CEC said that the vote should be taken in the meantime.
The chief election commissioner said, there might be a problem if any outsider hinders in casting ones vote, we are on alert. We will arrange CC cameras in polling booths. The presiding officer will be empowered to evict anyone inside the polling booth. If he can’t, he will call the police. If the police can’t, we must stop the polls. If an officer allows someone to stay inside out of fear of muscle power, action will be taken against him. We are training Presiding Officers in this regard.
At the end of the meeting, Jatiya Party (JP) head of delegation Anwar Hossain Manju clarified his position in response to the questions of the journalists and said that Jatiya Party-JP does not want any kind of discrimination such as Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) voting and ballot somewhere in the upcoming 12th National Assembly elections. If necessary, I have recommended voting in EVMs in all the 300 seats or in a certain number of centers in each seat, 10 percent or 15 percent of the centers according to the capacity of the machines.
Meanwhile, Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik– Sujan (Citizen for Good Governance) has responded to the challenges of two Election Commissioners over evidence of tampering in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The private organization told the Election Commission (EC), ‘EVMs are not connected to the Internet and no one has the source code of these machines. So it is impossible for anyone to raise evidence of tampering with EVMs.’
In the letter signed by Sujan president M. Hafizuddin Khan and Editor Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar further stated, “The ‘burden of proof’ that the current EVMs can ensure an unquestionably fair and acceptable election is on the shoulder of Commission alone and on no one else. And since no one else has the EVM and its source code, it is impossible for them to produce evidence of tampering with the EVM.”
