EC must take responsibility for poor upkeep of EVMs

At this point, it seems almost fated that the Election Commission (EC) would muck up anything it lays its hands on. After having bungled a recent "dialogue" meant to build confidence about the upcoming national election and then quickly confirming opposition suspicions by holding two by-polls riddled with irregularities, the EC is again back in the news, this time for its poor upkeep of the electronic voting machines (EVMs). Reportedly, poor maintenance of the machines has resulted in a staggering loss of Tk 940 crore. While, in the bigger scheme of things, this may be a "minor" setback—for EVMs will not be used in the national election—it does underscore the recurrent theme of the EC's ineptitude at anything related to elections.

According to our report, before the national election in 2018, the EC had procured 1.5 lakh EVMs at a cost over 11 times higher than that of those used in India. Despite the massive investment, and in contrast to the cheaper Indian machines that usually last 15 years, 40,000 of our EVMs—or over 30% of the total—have become inoperable within just five years. The resulting loss, it should be noted, has surpassed the total budget for the 2018 election by nearly Tk 200 crore. All this happened because there are no proper and safe storage facilities for preserving the EVMs, leading to many accessories and components getting broken, damaged or lost.

What's more, another 40,000 EVMs are at risk of going out of order due to improper storage, threatening an additional loss of Tk 940 crore. The question is: why would the EC purchase such sophisticated machinery only to leave them in places not designed for proper upkeep? Multiple EC officials have acknowledged a failure at the planning level for not paying attention to storage and maintenance issues during procurement in 2018. This lays bare the farce that has been the EVM project all along—introduced, implemented and then all but abandoned halfway without any accountability or political consensus whatsoever, which is not unsimilar to how the next election is being planned.

For now, the fate of the project, with much of the investment already going down the drain and no imminent attempt to refurbish at-risk EVMs, remains uncertain. We urge the EC to immediately work out a plan to ensure the machines are safely preserved for future use and also hold to account officials responsible for their present state. At the same time, the EC must understand that its already heavily bruised image makes it imperative that it does more, significantly more, to resolve ongoing issues preventing the chances of a free, credible and inclusive election come January.