After hinting last month that it has dropped plans to amend the Representation of People Order (RPO), the Election Commission now says it’s working for tabling a bill in parliament.
Speaking to media on Sunday, Election Commissioner Kabita Khanam said they are planning to include provisions allowing the use electronic voting machines (EVMs).
“It’s not that we can pass the RPO. The commission will decide on it. We are now working so that it can be table during the parliament’s next session,” she told reporters at her offices.
The EC’s ‘roadmap to national election’ announced last year included legal reforms to strengthen the electoral process.
In February last year, the president appointed retired bureaucrat KM Nurul Huda as the chief election commissioner.
He has former additional secretary Mahbub Talukder, former secretary Rafiqul Islam, former district judge Kabita Khanam, and former brigadier general Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury as election commissioners in his team.
Later, a panel led by Commissioner Khanam was formed for amending the RPO, which took input from field-level officials.
Following a four-month scrutiny and review, it forwarded 35 recommendations to the EC, which included the use of EVM but skipped the matter of deploying troops for the polls.
The recommendations were presented before the EC during a meeting on Apr 12, which, however, was sent back to the panel for further review.
EC Secretary Helal Uddin told the media on Jul 15, “The Election Commission had taken an initiative to amend the RPO. But that’s not happening for the time being.”
But Election Commissioner Khanam made it clear on Sunday that they are indeed going for it and also said that including provisions for use of EVM was on the cards despite objections by several parties.
However, capacity building is imperative before introducing EVMs in national polls, according to Khanam.
“Only procuring machines are not enough, the human resource needs to be trained as well. The final call will be made by the commissioners,” she said.
Ruling party Awami League has been favouring the use of EVMs in polls, while the BNP has expressed its reservations over the initiative, saying it may create room for vote rigging.
According to the existing constitution, election for the 11th parliament must be held within 90 days of the expiry of the 10th parliament. Accordingly, the next general election will be held between Oct 30, 2018 and Jan 28, 2019.
The EC may announce the schedule in November to hold the election at the end of December, Chief Election Commissioner Huda has said.