Dialogues with all parties within a month or two: CEC
The Election Commission alone can never make an election a success. The employees of the republic, such as the police, the administration, also have to play a very important role
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said the Election Commission will soon invite all political parties of the country, including the BNP, will be invited for dialogues on the elections.
While speaking to the media after inaugurating the Voter List Update Programme-2022 in Savar on Friday, he also said the dialogues will be arranged within a month or two.
Mentioning the challenges in holding elections in the country, the CEC said, "Elections and voting rights are exercised in many countries in the world without any violence. Everyone stands there in line to exercise their voting rights."
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"I was telling my colleagues that if I was the chief election commissioner of New Zealand or any other country like that, I would have finished the elections by sitting in a chair and having tea. I would not have to take any kind of stress, my blood pressure would not increase," he said.
"In Bangladesh, we have to take a lot of stress during the election. We have to be very careful. The Election Commission alone can never make an election a success. The employees of the republic, such as the police, and the administration, also have to play a very important role," the CEC added.
In response to a question from reporters about the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), the CEC said, "We will hold some more meetings and seminars on EVMs. Then we will think about increasing the EVM capability. I cannot make any decision alone at the moment."
Answering another question on whether it would be possible to take votes on EVMs in 300 seats, he said, "It is not possible to say anything about it now, it will be decided through further discussions."
He further said the exercise of suffrage is our civic responsibility and it is a psychological issue. "If we have the right sense of responsibility, we must understand that we will be governed by the representative elected by us."
"Here we need to develop our culture. We want competitive and participatory elections. But sometimes we see a lot of violence during elections. As a writer put it, this is not a crisis of our election, this is a crisis of our culture," he added.
The CEC said, "In many cases, these things shock and hurt us. We need to get rid of these practices. Maybe it will take some time."
