Not fully confident with EVM as yet: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal on Tuesday said the commission is not yet fully confident with the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the next parliamentary elections, reports news agency UNB.

“We’ve sat in five meetings, but we could not be fully confident over EVM. There will be more meetings to review it (the use of EVM). We want to gain the confidence of everyone over electronic voting machine,” he said.

The CEC was speaking at a press conference at his office in the city’s Agaogaon area.

Habibul claimed that he did not announce any “peculiar” reward of US $10 million in case of detecting any fault with EVMs.

“Only five-seven days ago, we informed everyone through letters that we’ve not reached any decision on the use of EVM. We are not bowing our heads to any pressure... We haven’t decided as yet,” he insisted.

According to media reports, election commissioner Anisur Rahmnan at a recent function in Madaripur said that the CEC announced a reward of 10 million dollars if anyone can detect fault in the EVM.

In this regard, Habibul said it is not the remark of the commission. He, however, said that election commissioners should be careful and responsible in their remarks.

About the next national election the CEC said, “We have no intention of turning the election into a farce. We’re saying from the heart that the healthy trend should continue through fair and participatory elections.”

Election commissioners Ahsan Habib Khan, Rasheda Sultana, Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman were present.