EC goes ahead with EVM project

Taib Ahmed

Despite stiff opposition from Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Election Commission has completed all necessary preparations to manufacture about three lakh electronic voting machines at a cost of about Tk 2,000 crore keeping in view the next general election slated for 2013.

‘We have made all necessary preparations for launching a project to manufacture EVMs for the next general elections,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told New Age on Friday.

He said, ‘If the next setup of the commission does not want to continue with the project, they can do it, but we have taken all preparations.’   

The incumbent election commission serves out its term in February.

Earlier, election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told New Age that the commission was going to sign a deal with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory to manufacture EVMs for the next general elections.

The commission on December 22 last year sat for a meeting with the people concerned and took a resolution for manufacturing EVMs on a large scale.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology vice-chancellor Nazrul Islam, BUET’s Institute of Information and Communication Technology director SM Lutful Kabir, who developed the technology for Bangladesh, Pi Labs Bangladesh Limited chairman Mahmudul Hasan and Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory managing director brigadier general Saidur Rahman attended the meeting presided over by the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda.

‘We want to make all necessary preparations for manufacturing sufficient number of EVMs before leaving the office though it is the next setup of the commission which would decide whether EVMs would be used in the next polls,’ the CEC was quoted to have said in the meeting.   

According to the resolution of the meeting, BUET is now conducting a research on how a large number of EVMs could be manufactured in an automated manner as the machines manufactured so far were manually produced, Lutful Kabir told New Age.   

‘We should go for the automated system to manufacture such a large number of EVMs in a short time,’ he added.

He also said manufacturing of EVMs in an automated system would improve the quality of the device.

When asked whether the design of the EVMs would be modified for the polls, Kabir said he had not received any such instruction from the commission.

As for the cost of the EVMs, he said that after conducting the research, the BUET would be able to say how much money would be required to manufacture the machines.

He, however, said manufacturing of a single EVM might cost about Tk 20,000, but it might vary depending on what modification the commission wants.

Officials in the commission said it had estimated that about Tk 2,000 crore might be needed for the project.

The commission will, however, prepare the ‘development project proposal’ of the EVM project only after the BUET puts forth its suggestions outlining the cost of manufacturing the EVMs.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson, has repeatedly said her party would not allow use of EVMs in the next general elections alleging that EVMs could be used in tampering with polls results.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, favoured use of EVMs in the next parliamentary polls.

The Delhi high court recently said that EVMs were not ‘tamper-proof’ and added that the Indian EC should itself consider a way out of it to put to rest all doubts.

The Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory will manufacture the EVMs with its printed circuit board to be produced by a Chinese company.