Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Participatory elections are more important than EVMs or ballots

CEC Kazi Habibul Awal said that participatory elections are more important than electronic voting machines (EVMs) or ballots to the current commission. Calling on all political parties, he said, we always say that you should come and participate in the elections. Make the election count by participating. So that the election is beautiful and acceptable to the people.

He said this after meeting the leaders of the Election Monitoring Forum yesterday at the election building in Agargaon. CEC said, what we want is not EVM or ballot. The bottom line is that everyone should strive for a beautiful, fair and participatory election. It does not matter if there is EVM or ballot in that election. He said, if the election is not participatory and there is no effective competition, then what the EVM will do, what the ballot will do cannot be guaranteed. It is also not guaranteed whether EVM-ballot will be required at all.

In this regard, although the decision to use EVMs in 150 seats was announced, the CEC said yesterday that there is still no assurance in this regard. He said, we have decided to vote in EVM in maximum 150 seats. But till now there is no guarantee about this. Because it will depend if the government approves the project. If its financial implications do not seem appropriate in the view of the government, then such projects may not be allowed. The current commission has taken a positive decision about EVMs after due analysis and opinion.

CEC said, we did not support EVMs. We have analyzed EVMs from our side. It's been six months. We have spent a long time trying to understand the EVM machine at different levels, processes and methods. There has also been massive participation in EVMs. No one has been able to show that manipulation takes place through it. Now everyone openly says that EVM hacking is not possible. He said, we told the leaders of Election Monitoring Forum, you do your work. We cannot participate in any of your work. It is not possible. He also told us that you are not campaigning on EVMs. We said we would look into it. CEC said, they (leaders of the forum) wanted to talk about one thing that we may have foreign diplomats come here. They want to know whether diplomats influence us? As I said, they are diplomats. They are highly trained. Never said and will never say anything to influence the election. He said, foreign diplomats often give assurances of cooperation. Want to know if an assistant is needed. But we have not yet made any such offer to them.