Rejecting BNP’s call to shelve the plan to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in elections to Dhaka north and south city corporations, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda today categorically said that there is no scope to stay aside from the plan.
“EVMs is not an online system, it is an offline one. There is no scope of hacking the system and it will not create any discomfort during the voting,” Huda said while talking to reporters at his commission office in Dhaka this evening.
Stating that the EVM is an ‘ill-motivated silent project of the government to destroy people’s voting rights, BNP yesterday urged the Election Commission (EC) to stay aside from its plan to use it in the upcoming elections to two Dhaka city corporations.
Responding to a query in this regard, Huda said they have held parliamentary, city corporation and local government elections using the devices but no complaints have been brought against it from voters even from the candidates.
“There is no scope of silent vote rigging through the EVMs,” the chief of the constitutional body said brushing aside BNP’s allegations.
When asked about the programming of the EVMs, Huda said programming means setting for the voting time in the device.
If the beginning and ending time of the voting is set in the EVMs, no one can open it or cast vote after ending of the timeframe, he said.
Even no one can cast multiple votes through the EVMs as the device can protect it, Huda said citing several advantages of using the electronic system.
He said different types of irregularities took place in the election like snatching ballot boxes and throwing those to ponds and setting on fire.
Even in the 1980s, the election results were announced at 10:00pm, 3:00am or in the morning of the next day of the election and its results were changed, he said.
In a bid to get remedy from such irregularities, the EVMs are going to be used in the election, the CEC said.
When asked about BNP’s allegation against the ruling party candidates of violating electoral code of conduct, he said respective officials of the commission have already taken legal step to this end.
About the arrest of the opposition party men, he said no unnecessary arrest will be made till the January 30 but if the court issues an arrest warrant against anyone then the police have not right to go against the order.
In response to another question about the free and fair election, Huda said the election officials will conduct the polls upholding the electoral code of conduct and rules and regulation going beyond their partisan mentality.
