Parliamentary elections to be held by EVMs in 150 seats: EC

The Election Commission (EC) today has decided to hold the upcoming 12th national parliamentary elections through Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) system in a maximum of 150 seats. An EC meeting was held in the conference room of the Agargaon election commission building at around 3 pm on Tuesday.

After the meeting, EC additional secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath confirmed this information to the newsmen. “In today’s EC meeting, it was decided to use EVMs in a maximum of 150 seats in the national elections. Right now, we have the capacity to use EVMs in 70-75 seats,” he said.

Stating that the commission has a total of “one and a half lakh EVM machines”, EC additional secretary said arrangements will be made to purchase more EVM machines if necessary. He added that EVMs will be used in which seats, the decision has not been taken yet. It will be informed at the time of the announcement of the election schedule.

In response to a query about why the decision to use EVMs is being taken despite the opposition of various political parties, EC additional secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath said that this decision has been taken after “considering” the advice of all political parties.  All Election Commissioners including Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal were present at the meeting.