1.5 lakh evms bought since 2018: 40,000 unrepairable

The Election Commission has bought 1.5 lakh EVMs in phases since 2018 at Tk 2.35 lakh each, almost 11 times the price available in India.

Now, around five years later, 40,000 of those machines are beyond repair while the rest 1.1 lakh can be fixed but that requires around Tk 1,260 crore, according to a proposal from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTF).

Officials of the machine tools factory placed the proposal seeking the amount at a meeting with the chief election commissioner and commissioners on Thursday.

The control units, monitors, batteries and cables of the EVMs are now non-functional as those were carelessly stacked up either at field-level election offices or schoolrooms, several EC officials said.

"They [BMTF officials] sought the money to refurbish the EVMs to make them useable. Refurbishment means they need to change batteries, cables, timers and other parts," EC Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told The Daily Star yesterday.

Contacted, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (Retd) Ahsan Habib Khan said they were in discussion with the BMTF, the lone manufacturer of the electronic voting machines that the commission uses.

"They [BMTF officials] emphasised the need for refurbishment of EVMs. The commission is considering their proposal. The commission will take a decision, subject to financial matters," Ahsan Habib added.

The EC in August 2022 started stocktaking and assessing the EVMs as it decided to use machines in the highest 150 constituencies in the next general polls likely to be held early January 2024.

At that time, the EC officials said they would be able to hold the elections to 70-80 constituencies with EVMs and would need to procure more if they were to use them in up to 150 seats.

Accordingly, the EC prepared a project involving Tk 8,711 crore to buy 2 lakh new EVMs.

But the government this January shelved the project, forcing the commission to reconsider its plan to use the machines in up to 150 constituencies in the next general polls.

A presentation made at an internal EC workshop in early September 2022 said there were 93,000 EVMs at EC's field offices and schoolrooms in districts and upazilas across the country.

"And 30 percent of these machines are unusable at this moment," it said.

Yesterday, EVM project officials said now a total of 75,404 EVMs are stored at field offices, 73,810 at BMTF and the rest at the EVM customisation centre.

So far, the quality checking of EVMs in five out of 10 EC regions has been completed. A total of 43,624 EVMs were checked and 27,223 or 62 percent of them apparently need some kind of repairs.

At least 25,000 EVMs in five other regions may require repairs.

EC officials said they have a prescheduled meeting with the finance ministry for today and will place the matter of Tk 1,260 crore there.

Election Commissioner Ahsan Habib Khan said 1,143 elections, like local government, parliamentary and parliamentary by-polls, have been held using the EVMs since 2018.

"Each EVM has been used for 3 to 4 elections in the last five years. Besides, the EVM project will expire in June. Its warranty and service support will also expire in June. Proper maintenance of each EVM is necessary to use these EVMs in the national election," he said.

The EVM issue came to the fore after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at an Awami League meeting on May 7 said EVMs would be used in all 300 constituencies.

The ruling party and some of its alliance partners are in favour of the use of the machines but at least 19 out of the 39 registered political parties have either directly told the EC or said in public that they oppose it.