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The Election Commission has long wanted to shift towards its electronic voting machine project to increase the use of technology in place of paper ballots for voting. And it does not want to give up now. The election regulator wants another year on the project before it makes a decision.
Meanwhile, the commission expects to develop its own workforce for EVM repair and maintenance work. In addition, a plan has been formed to build a special warehouse in Dhaka to store election materials, including EVMs, centrally.
EC Secretary Shafiul Azim said a proposal to increase the project duration by another year has been sent to the Bangladesh Planning Commission. There was also a plan to build a warehouse for EVM repair and maintenance in Dhaka, according to bdnews24.com.
Regarding their request for land from the district administration, he said: “If we [the commission] secure the land, it will be used to build a warehouse for conservation. It will be built as a completely independent unit, which is among our plans.”
Around 150,000 EVMs were purchased under the project ahead of the eleventh parliamentary elections in 2018. The duration of the five-year-long project was extended by a year in 2023. Later, no more EVMs were purchased for the twelfth parliamentary elections in 2024 due to lack of funds.
Around 70,000 of 150,000 machines have been stored at EMV manufacturer company Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory Ltd (BMTF). The remaining 80,000 machines were used in different field-level elections.
A large chunk of EVMs were damaged due to maintenance issues.
EC officials believe the maintenance of EVMs, which are in a ‘good state’ now, is more urgent rather than moving forward with the project, given the current situation. For this reason, the election watchdog wants to extend the project by another year.
The EC has sent a revised proposal seeking the extension of the project to the Planning Commission this month.
Azim said, “The Planning Commission is being contacted. We are expecting to secure a one-year extension.”
He said the reduction of cost and maintenance of EVMs by their own workforce will also be taken into consideration.
“We are expecting the extension to be approved for one more year without any cost. If there is anything else to do with EVMs - such as how to increase integration, build the commission's manpower, how to preserve or maintain it and how to handle its technicalities successfully - all that we will get right in the next one year."
14 YEARS OF EVM
>>After the introduction of EVMs in 2010, they were largely used in local elections. The commission headed by ATM Shamsul Huda widely used EVMs in city corporation polls. However, Huda could not implement them in parliamentary elections.
>>The commission headed by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed left the previous EVMs in a useless state in 2012. The use of EVMs stumbled even in city corporation polls during his term.
>> The commission headed by KM Nurul Huda tried to revive the EVM project. The project to purchase 150,000 EVMs for Tk 38.25 billion was approved. By amending the law, EVMs were used in six constituencies in the eleventh national elections in 2018.
>>Although the lifespan of these machines is estimated to be 10 years, most of the EVMs went out of order. A large sum of money needed to repair them was not provided afterwards.
>>Meanwhile, the commission headed by Kazi Habibul Awal has conducted most of the local government elections through EVMs. The commission had a plan to use EVMs in at least 150 seats in the 12th national elections.
>>However, the government did not approve the purchase of 200,000 new EVMs amid the economic crisis in the post-COVID period, forcing the EC to scrap the plan of using EVMs in the 12th parliamentary elections.
Now the commission is planning to work with EMVs and new features in all local elections.
EC Secretary Azim says the widespread use of any kind of technology starts through a project. “It depends on the public’s expectations and their opinions. Requests have been made to use EMVs in the future elections.”
“The commission has decided to conduct local elections by using EVMs in the future.”
Azim also stated that the commission was working with specialists, media workers, beneficiaries and users to focus on the details of the device as people have queries regarding the new technology.
They are also working to see if more new features can be added to the existing EVMs, how to make them more reliable, how they are used in other countries and their acceptance globally.