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EC never under govt pressure

Insists CEC, says e- voting under consideration for fair polls

Staff Correspondent
The government neither interfered nor put any pressure on Election Commission in the last four and a half years of the commission's tenure, said Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday.
The EC is now mulling to introduce electronic voting machine (EVM) to hold fair and convenient elections, not to help the government rig vote which the other political parties are afraid of, he said.
The CEC was speaking at a dialogue with Bangladesh Biplobi Worker's Party (Revolutionary Workers' Party of Bangladesh — RWPB) at the commission's secretariat in the capital as part of its ongoing discussion with registered political parties on electoral reform.
On introduction of “no vote”, he said, "We are strongly in favour of it.”
About increasing the number of EC members, the CEC said, "Everyone thinks the commission will be stronger if five commissioners are appointed. I think, it will rather weaken it by enhancing possibilities of disagreement
among them.”
Meanwhile, in a separate dialogue with Bangladesh Kallyan Party yesterday, the CEC criticised some government and non-government organisations for asking people to show their national ID cards.
“As the government has not issued any notification on it till now, it is not yet mandatory to ask for national IDs for official purpose,” he said.
Election commissioner M Shakhawat Hussain said except for the media, no political party appreciated or encouraged the EC. The commission had to swim upstream.
“But the government has been very cooperative since it assumed power in 2009. It extended every help we asked for,” he said
Stressing the need for reviewing existing laws, he said, “We cannot cancel
nomination of many corrupt candidates due to legal loopholes.”
The RWPB delegates led by the party's General Secretary Saiful Haque emphasised direct budgetary allocation for the EC in a bid to strengthen it further.
Their other recommendations include holding of national elections for seven days — a day each for seven divisions; and bringing down the limit of election campaign cost to Tk 5 lakh while security deposit to Tk 5,000.
They also spoke for the introduction of EVM in phases in local government elections.
Bangladesh Kallyan Party, however, suggested starting the system from the 11th parliamentary elections. It also recommended increasing of reserved seats for women from 45 to 100 and constituencies from 300 to 500.