EC plans electronic voting in next polls
Says Dr Shamsul Huda
The Election Commission is preparing to introduce electronic voting machine (EVM) in the next parliamentary elections to hold the polls easily and fairly.
Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said this while replying to a query of journalists following a meeting at a city hotel yesterday, where findings of an observation report on the recently held union parishad (UP) elections were disclosed.
With the support of The Asia Foundation, Election Working Group (EWG) prepared the report titled "Union Parishad Elections in Bangladesh 2011" upon mobile observation of the elections.
The findings suggest that the union parishad elections can be considered to have been free, fair, and peaceful in general, said the report.
Speaking on the occasion, the CEC said there is definitely an improvement in this year's elections than that in the previous ones, and the administration by and large played a neutral role.
Responding to a question of use of black money, he said influence of money in the elections is a universal problem.
India is being considered as a model, as the country has been practicing democracy for the last 60 years, "but they are also at a loss to find clue to control it [influence of money]", said Dr Huda.
The CEC said positive motivation of people who use black money is the best way to handle the issue.
Replying to another query about Awami League lawmaker Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir's parliament membership, he said the EC would take its next step after receiving the certified copy of the High Court rule.
Saima Anwer, deputy country representative of The Asia Foundation, presented the election report summary at yesterday's meeting.
She said EWG conducted mobile observation of elections in 1,644 union parishads and conducted pre- and post-poll survey in 300 unions.
The analysis of the report suggests the overall election process was rated as good or very good in 96 percent of the unions, meaning irregularities that occurred have no significant effect on the integrity of the process, she said.
Saima also said the pre-poll situation was marked by almost total absence of violence, and the situation on voting days remained peaceful.
"In 98 percent of the sampled unions, all the contesting candidates accepted the election results," she said, adding that some incidents of post-poll confrontation between supporters of elected and defeated candidates that occurred account for 18.7 percent of the unions.
Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, The Asia Foundation Country Representative Hasan Mazumdar, and EWG Co-chair Abdul Awal also spoke at the programme.
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