‘No surety of fair polls with EVM-ballot without being participat

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has expressed his concern over holding fair polls with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and ballots without being participatory.

He said, “Our target is to use EVMs in a maximum 150 seats. But there is no assurance so far. The government may not approve the project if the financial application does not seem applicable.”

He further said participatory election is more important to the present commission than ballots or EVMs.

The CEC came up with the comments after a meeting with the leaders of the Election Monitoring Forum on Tuesday morning. 

Habibul Awal said that they wanted to know some perceptions which are in the public mind about EVMs. They said they also work with EVMs. They are trying to clarify the negative perception about EVMs. 

“I thanked them for that,” he said.