Civic platform Citizens for Good Governance (SHUJAN) has expressed concerned over the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the Dhaka city corporations polls, slated for Saturday (Feb 1).
In a video message sent to the media on Friday (Jan 31), SHUJAN General Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar explained their concerns calling the voters to exercise their franchises.
Expressing concern over EVMs, Mazumdar said, "Many are susceptible to the polls. One of the reason of concerns is the previous role of the Election Commission (EC).
"The EC is a constitutional body responsible for advancement of democracy but its role in the national election was biased," he added.
The civic body chief went on saying that the EVMs for the Dhaka polls have some 'weaknesses.'
"One of the weaknesses is these EVMs have no voter verifiable paper audit trail," said Mazumdar adding that the India incorporated the tools following the country's supreme court order.
If incorporated, a voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verifiable paper record (VPR) enables the EVMs to print out a paper document for every ballot cast, showing which candidate got the vote, eventually allowing the polls officials to compare both electronic and paper records later.
It helps discover any discrepancies between an EVM’s final count and the manual counting from the printed out ballots, essentially deterring the dreaded “pre-engineering” through which EVMs might produce pre-determined results.
"Currently, we have to accept the results which the EC reveals," The SUJAN said.
Explaining the another reason of concerns, Majumdar said, "EVMs read fingerprints to identify voters. But sometimes it fail which is why polls officials have been authorized to overwrite the EVMs up to 25 percent of the votes.
"It means if 25 percent voters remain absent polls officials have chance to stuff the ballots the candidates of their favours and it is dangerous," he added.
Blaming the EC for being silent over the aspirants' polls code violations, Majumdar urged the Dhaka voters go to the polls centers defying all barriers to come out of the culture of pre-engineered election.