Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday welcomed the Election Commission’s decision to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in up to 150 of the 300 parliamentary seats in the next general election.
Quader was speaking at an event to mark the 18th death anniversary of Awami League women’s affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, who was killed in a grenade attack on August 21 in 2004.
He said the during its dialogue with the EC, Awami league demanded that EVMs are used in all 300 seats.
“The Election Commission has agreed to use EVMs in half of the total parliamentary seats. We welcome the decision of the Election Commission,” he said.
Quader said “We have said that it is good and safe to use modern technology. We do not want a repeat of rigged and fraudulent elections.There is no problem with EVM.”
He questioned whether the opponents of EVMs want elections to be rigged.
Referring to a dialogue with the EC, he said AL had suggested the EC for using the EVM in 2018 as a modern technology because his party never wants recurrence of vote rigging and forgery in the elections.
Then the EC had introduced the EVM technology in some elections, he said.
Terming the EVM use as trouble-free, the ruling party leader expressed his apprehension that those who are afraid of EVM, “do they want free and fair elections at all?”.
Paying tributes to Ivy Rahman, the AL leader said she sacrificed her life for the welfare of the country and restoration of democracy.
She will be remembered for her humility and love for the people, he said.
Ivy Rahman, wife of late president Zillur Rahman, was among 24 people killed in the grenade attack on the Awami League’s anti-terrorism rally at Bangabandhu Avenue.
