The Election Commission (EC) authorities are not sure of whether the electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be used in the next 12th national elections.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said this on Wednesday.
The CEC said that he is not yet sure about the use of EVMs in the next national elections.
Following a meeting with a delegation of the European Uenion at the Election Commission office he told reporters, "The delegation asked whether there is any distrust in EVM. I have said that the confusion about EVMs has gone away. But I have also informd them that I am still not completely sure about (the use of) EVM, as it is not yet sure if the required number of EVMs will be available.
"We have not come to any definite decision on how many poling centres will use EVMs for voting. That was all we discussed with them."
In response to a question from reporters, he said, "A delegation of the EU also visited us here last year in July. There was an exchange of views with them about the election. As an election year nears, they have come to exchange views again. Basically, they came to know how our election preparations are going.”
“When asked about what they [EU] specifically want to know about the election, they asked to know about the electoral role. I have told them whether there is any initiative to redefine the limits of parliamentary seats, and make the election participatory or not. We cleared our current stance and said we were ready,” he said.
It should be mentioned that the EC earlier had proposed the government a project of around Tk 9,000 crore for the purchase of EVMs. But the government has not responded to the proposal yet.
The next National Parliament election is expected to be held in the last month of this year of in the first half of the month of January in 2024.
