The Election Commission yesterday kicked off their elaborate dialogue process for reforms in the EC with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Jatiya Party (JP) expressing their support for introduction of an electronic voting system (EVS) in the next general polls.
As the main opposition BNP continued to shun it, both LDP and JP expressed their satisfaction with the electronic system at talks that lasted for over three hours.
… BNP has opposed the EC’s move to introduce an EVS saying the move is an ‘ill intention’ by the government to manipulate the results of the upcoming parliamentary polls.
The party is yet to decide whether or not to participate in the talks with EC, saying the EC was working ‘for’ the present government’s interests. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said BNP’s reservation about the new system comes from their inadequate knowledge about how it works. He pointed out that the system has already been used on a limited scale in the Chittagong City Corporation election. Huda expressed hope that BNP would eventually join the dialogue.
… One of the main questions raised by the political parties was if there was any scopes to manipulate the casting of votes or cast fake votes using this system which the BUET professor said was not possible.
The EVS has been prepared locally under the joint collaboration of BUET and Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory.
Full Article: EC begins dialogue with political parties.