EC to sit with political parties in three phases regarding EVM

The Election Commission (EC) will sit with 39 registered political parties for verification of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and exchange of views on  the same in three phases from 19 June.

EC Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath informed the reporters regarding the matter on Tuesday (14 June).

He said 13 parties including Jatiya Party and another 13 parties including BNP will be called on 19 June and 21 June respectively while 13 parties including Awami League will be invited on 26 June.

EC informed that each party will be able to send five members of their representative or technical team while the parties will receive invitation letters in a few days.

The EC will decide on the use of EVM in the forthcoming 12th National Assembly elections on the basis of everyone's opinion while the commission has already taken the opinion of the best technologists in the country.

At present, the EC has 1.54 lakh voting machines, with which it is possible to hold vote in about 100 seats.

In 2011, the Election Commission headed by ATM Shamsul Huda introduced EVM voting for the first time. At that time they made a machine from Buet for Tk12,000. But that machine failed in the 2015 Rajshahi City Corporation elections. As a result, the Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed Commission decided to make a new and better EVM by eliminating all the machines taken from Buet.

KM Nurul Huda's commission made more advanced machines worth Tk2 lakh from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory.

The present commission headed by Kazi Habibul Awal also wants to use EVM based on everyone's opinion.