The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has urged its Election Commission to scrap the use of electronic voting machines in the next general elections, reported Daily Star. A three-member delegation led by BNP leader Nazrul Islam Khan held a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda in Dhaka and told him that most countries around the world had stopped using EVMs.
“Motive of using the system is a proven matter,” Khan said. “There is a doubt of digital rigging in the elections.” Huda has assured the delegation that the system would not be used if any political party opposed it, Khan said.
Khan, the standing committee member of the BNP, said the party would be contesting the next general elections to be held in 2019. “And for this, we want a congenial atmosphere,” he told Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo.
Last week, the Election Commission of India had said that it will hold an EVM “hackathon” from June 3 for parties to participate and prove that the EVMs can be tampered with. However, the regulatory body also confirmed that EVMs equipped with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail System would be used in all future elections.
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