No EVM in next general election

DHAKA: The Election Commission is not thinking to use electronic voting machine (EVM) in next general election due to disagree of the political parties and monopoly business.

Some officials of EC secretariat told banglanews that the decision was taken considering the high price and unavailability of EVM machines.

EC secretary Dr Mohammad Sadik told banglanews, “EC has reconsidered the matter whether it is logical to buy EVM with Tk 46,000 while laptop is available at Tk 30,000.”

Another official said, “Moreover EVM suppliers BUET and Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory are claiming extra servicing charge for the maintenance of existing EVM machines.”

Election Commissioner M Shahnewaz told banglanews, “All the political parties are not agreed yet to use EVM and we will not use EVM to facilitate someone to do monopoly business.”

BDST: 2047 HRS, JUN 20, 2012

Edited by: Abul Kalam Azad, Newsroom Editor