Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said his party welcomed the Election Commission (EC)’s decision of using Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in maximum 150 constituencies in the next parliament elections.

He told the newsmen responding to a query after paying homage at the grave of the ruling AL’s former women leader Ivy Rahman in City’s Banani area marking her 18th death anniversary.

“We wanted EVM in 300 constituencies but the EC agreed to use EVM in half of all constituencies … and we welcome the EC’s decision,” Quader said.

Referring to a dialogue with the EC, he said AL had suggested the EC for using the EVM in 2018 as a modern technology because his party never wants recurrence of vote rigging and forgery in the elections.

Then the EC had introduced the EVM technology in some elections, he said, adding that, “So we had demanded EVM in 300 constituencies during the next parliament elections.”
Terming the EVM use as trouble-free, the ruling party leader expressed his apprehension that those who are afraid of EVM, “do they want free and fair elections at all?”.