All votes to be cast with ballot if political parties reach consensus: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said the crisis prevails in the political arena is not about Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). This crisis is even worse. If this crisis is resolved, all votes will be with ballot. If there is 100% political consensus, there is no problem.

CEC said this in reply to queries of the reporters at his office on Wednesday (September 7).

CEC said, “Zafar Iqbal had said it was not a very complicated machine. Taking his speech, it is being said that it is a weak device. Whether the instrument is weak or strong is not for me to consider. No need to be strong, no need to be weak. Whether the machine is working that is the real issue. Over the years we have used EVMs in thousands of elections. Nowhere did our device malfunction.”

He said, “Digital fraud is possible, this has been said since the day one. Digital fraud will be through vote-stealing machine. We took a lot of time to sort it out. I have asked all teams to bring technicians to check. We also took their words into consideration and examined the machines. We have not found any evidence of digital fraud. If the political parties cannot tell specifically, how the fraud is possible, it does not hold good. We are emphatically saying, digital fraud is not possible. We have to prove that digital fraud is not possible; But it is not legal language.”

Qazi Habibul Awal also said those who are complaining will show us in writing and verbally how fraud is possible. So far no party has said or shown this. How many teams came, we saw in details. Five to seven parties have directly said in favor of EVMs, while others have said with conditions.