THE use of electronic voting machines in the next national elections, scheduled for late 2023 or early 2024, has been in discussion for some time, with the ruling Awami League having been in favour and most parties in the opposition camp having been against it. Such a situation suggests that there has already been disagreement of a sort on the use of electronic voting machines. The issue came to the fore again with an election commissioner on May 9 saying that the commission does not have the capacity to deploy the machines in all the 300 parliamentary constituencies and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, saying two day before, on May 7, that electronic voting machines would be used in the next national elections. Political parties in the opposition camp have criticised the prime minister’s leading statement, which they view as an attempt to influence the Election Commission in the use of voting machines, which is solely for the commission to decide. Besides the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the largest political party in the opposition camp, the Jatiya Party has also criticised the prime minister’s statement.

Most political parties have, meanwhile, continued to express concern about the use of electronic voting machines while voters have expressed their lack of confidence in the system, which can be manipulated for illegitimate purposes, with no scope for a review or verification. The election authorities now allow presiding officers to cast up to 25 per cent of the votes on behalf of voters in cases of fingerprint mismatch, which only widens the scope for manipulation. In a country such as Bangladesh, where a large number of people are digitally illiterate and are sceptical about technology, electronic voting machines appear to be a debateable choice. It should also be noted that many countries have rejected electronic voting machines. Reservations about the use of voting machines have, in fact, been there ever since it was first used in Bangaldesh in 2007, when they were employed in Dhaka Officers’ Club elections. EVMs were then gradually employed in local government elections and were used in general elections in 2018 on a limited scale amid criticism.

The use of controversial devices that have failed to earn confidence of the voters and political parties is likely to further damage the electoral culture and credibility. When the overall electoral culture has been seriously ruptured, with the past two general elections being highly non-participatory and when partisan control of polling stations, the intimidation of polling agents of parties outside the ruling camp, voter obstruction and assisted voting have come to characterise the electoral culture, it is imperative for the Election Commission to make elections free, fair and transparent. And, the commission should do away with electronic voting machines to this end.