The ruling Awami League on Sunday reaffirmed that the upcoming general election would be held under the current system and demanded that the Election Commission hold votes in all 300 constituencies using Electronic Voting Machines.

‘Sheikh Hasina will remain as head of the government during the next general election and the election will be held under the Election Commission,’ AL general secretary Obaidul Quader said while talking at the EC-hosted dialogue at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka.  

A 12-member AL delegation, led by Quader, placed their proposals during the dialogue with the commission.

‘Awami League believes in EVMs wholeheartedly.

There is no alternative to EVMs to prevent vote rigging. We want EVMs in all 300 seats,’ Quader said.

In response to the proposal of the Awami League, chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal acknowledged that there was a crisis with EVMs.

‘Most of the parties are not in favour of EVMs. All of them could not reach a consensus on the matter. We have not taken any decision yet [regarding the use of EVMs in the next election],’ he said.

He said that the commission would prefer to stay above criticism by holding a free, fair, and credible election as the past two elections were heavily criticised.

‘While many elections in the past were criticised, the past two elections in 2014 and 2018 drew excessive criticism and debates in the political sphere. We want to stay above criticism and controversy by holding free and acceptable elections without bias,’ he said.

The CEC said that it was the constitutional and statutory responsibility of the Election Commission to hold free and neutral elections. Similarly, it is the constitutional and statutory duty of the government to assist the Election Commission. So, the commission arranged the dialogues out of its responsibility.

‘We will continue our sincere efforts to make elections free and acceptable,’ he said.

He described the Awami League as the oldest party and one of the biggest political parties in the country and said that the commission had higher expectations from it.

Awal said that AL had been in power for three terms in a row. So, the common people call AL the ruling party or the power party. But there is nothing called a ‘government party’ or ‘ruling party’ in the constitution.

‘If I am not wrong, the Awami League is a political party like any other party,’ he said, adding that the Election Commission will fulfil its responsibility to hold the 12th national election in a free, neutral, and participatory manner and ensure the exercise of voting rights as per the laws and regulations while remaining loyal to the constitution.

‘We hope that everyone will cooperate with the commission,’ he added.

Citing that the Election Commission got opinions from the political parties both for and against the use of EVMs during its talks, the CEC said, ‘Most of the parties do not believe in EVMs… we couldn’t gain the confidence of many people after talking. We will make decisions independently. But there is no complete consensus. ’

Talking about the proposals received from other political parties in the dialogue, Awal said some parties were for holding the national election over several days, not a single day, and some parties also asked for the deployment of the army in the parliamentary polls.

Election commissioner Rashida Sultana said that people had a serious lack of confidence and gaining people’s confidence was a big challenge for the commission.

Responding to her, AL joint general secretary Hasan Mahmud said that there was no shortage of people’s confidence in the EC.

In the dialogue, AL made 14 proposals to the EC ahead of the next general election.

Quader demanded that police, civil administration, and Election Commission officials, who were appointed during the four-party coalition government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, should be kept off duty in the parliamentary elections.

On the same day, the Jatiya Party also participated in the talks with the EC separately.

The party secretary general, Mujibul Haque, demanded sending ballots to polling stations in the morning instead of at night before voting to avert night-time stuffing.

He said that his party did not have confidence in EVMs.

‘We do not have any confidence in it either. People think that there is nothing to do if the votes are manipulated in EVM. There is no scope to recheck the result,’ he added.