DHAKA, Nov 12, 2018 (BSS) – The Election Commission (EC) today rescheduled
the 11th parliamentary election fixing the last date of nomination paper
submission on November 28 and the polls date on December 30.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda announced the new schedule
while addressing as the chief guest the inaugural function of the Electronic
Voting Machine (EVM) display at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre
here this morning.
“It is a matter pleasure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP),
Jukta Front and other political parties have decided to participate in the
Jatiya Sangsad (JS) polls… So the EC has revised the polls schedule,” he
said.
The CEC said: “We were waiting for all the political parties to
participate in the polls and believed that we would be able to hold a well-
accepted election with the participation of all the political parties.”
“Now I will disclose here only the nomination paper submission and voting
dates and other changes will be disclosed by tomorrow following a meeting at
the EC,” the CEC added.
Earlier, the CEC declared the polls schedule on Thursday by announcing the
last date of nomination paper submission on November 19, the date for
nomination paper scrutiny on November 22, the date for nomination paper
withdrawal on November 29 and polls date on December 23.
Regarding the introducing of the EVM in the election, Huda said the EC had
tried to introduce it since 2008, but it had many shortcomings, adding that
“now we are confident to use this device.”
Chaired by EC Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed, the function was also addressed
by Election Commissioners Mahbub Talukder, Dr M Rafiqul Islam and Begum
Kabita Khanam as the special guests.
Terming the use of the EVM as time-befitting, EC’s additional secretary
Mokhlesur Rahman said the devise is usually not connected with the internet,
so there is no possibility of hacking the machine from outside.
“The device already has been displayed in the development fair October 4-6
across the country and huge response was received in favour of using it,”
said Rahman in his welcome address.
Talking about the advantage of the device, Brigadier General Saidul Islam
said, “We suspended the use of the device in 2011 as the then EVM device had
no biometric verification option.”
The launching of the EVM device will check any kind of vote rigging
including snatching of ballot boxes as it is protected by password and finger
prints, said Islam who is Director General of the Identification System for
Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project under the Election Commission.
Election Commission high officials, representatives from different
government and non-government organizations were present.