No intention to turn election into farce, says CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said, “We had no intention to turn the election into farce. We are telling this the heart. Let the healthy trend continue through fair and participatory elections.”

He told this to the reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon in the capital on Tuesday (May 24).

Other four Election Commissioners (ECs)- Ahsan Habib Khan, Rashed Sultana, Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman- were present there.

CEC said, “We had held five meetings over Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). However, we could not be completely trusted. There will be more meetings where we will review the matter. We had said that we want to gain the trust of everyone about EVMs. There will be a technical meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) as well.”

Kazi Habibul Awal also claimed that he never made any ‘bizarre’ announcement of reward of crore taka if someone could detect any fault of EVM.

Recently, EC Anisur Rahman said in Madaripur, “CEC announced a bounty of 10 million dollar if someone could detect any fault in EVM.”

Amid criticism over the matter, Hazi Habibul Awal cleared his position, “Confusion spread out. The bounty of 10 million dollar is a bizarre rumour.”

However, the CEC thinks that some of the EVM stakeholders may have said such things during their discussions.

Speaking on behalf of Election Commissioner Anisur Rahman, CEC said, “After hearing such statements, I started an internal investigation. One can express his love, exuberance. Some of those who are making EVMs have said. That’s how someone said this, the thing came from there.”

The Election Commissioner may be talking about 10 million dollar bounty with some confusion, he added.

He further said, “This is not a statement from the commission. CEC cannot tell this, let alone a commissioner. We lost our temper while talking to media. Not to humiliate the commission, not to humiliate the CEC, I believe it was a bit of confusion.”