BNP says govt plans to use EVMs to rig general election

The government's popularity is 'next to nothing’ and so it wants to rig the next election by using electronic voting machines (EVMs), the BNP suspects.

The party's Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi spoke on Friday about the suspicion at a press conference organised to give the BNP's reaction to the chief election commissioner's comments on the matter.

Rizvi said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who advises her on ICT affairs, said two days ago that EVMs would be used in the next parliamentary election.

"The CEC's comments yesterday (Thursday) seemed to echo those remarks (of Joy)," Rizvi said.

"The commission's statement is a reflection of the government's wish. We think there is ill intention in the EC bringing the issue of EVMs to the fore again," the BNP leader said.

He said EVMs are 'faulty'.

Rizvi also said the use of EVMs has been banned totally or partially in elections in the US, Germany and India after questions were raised.

The EC headed by ATM Shamsul Huda used EVMs in some local government elections for the first time in 2010 and prepared the machines for the 2014 parliamentary election before leaving office in 2012.

The last commission of Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, however, discarded the machines amidst complexities over their use and the BNP's opposition.

The technology was brought in association with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Machine Tools Factory but the project came to a halt after five years following EC-BUET dispute over technical glitch.

Incumbent CEC KM Nurul Huda on Thursday said the machines would be used in the next election if all the political parties and other stakeholders wanted so.