Approval of the proposal to buy 1.5 million EVMs Bangladesh

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved the proposal to purchase one and a half million electronic voting machines (EVMs) for use in national elections in the face of strong opposition from the parties. Whose expenditure is estimated to be around Tk 4 billion.

The project was approved in the meeting of the NEC at the NEC conference room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Tuesday. The meeting presided over by ECNEC chairperson Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

After the meeting, the minister said the EC will send a proposal to ECN for approval of the plan to buy 1.5 lakh EVMs. The proposal given by them is approved at today's ECNEC meeting.

The proposed expenditure on the project has been estimated at Tk 3,825 crore 34 lakh For the purchase of only one and a half million EVMs, systems and related equipment, the cost of Taka 3,51,56,61 million has been spent. As a result, prices of EVMs per unit are about two lakhs.

The implementation period of the project has been extended from current time to June 2023.

The Planning Minister said, in the meeting including the EVM approved 14 projects. The total expenditure will be 12,554.44 million taka

About the EVM, he said that the project on 'Buying, conservation and utilization of EVMs to bring more transparency in the election system' will be implemented in full public funding.

Under the project, for the election of EVMs in various elections across the country, gradually buying, saving and using 1,50,000 EVM machines will be used. Apart from this, organizing training to raise the necessary skills for EVMs for all the concerned people, awareness campaign for voting for EVMs will be adopted and implemented.

Earlier on 11 September, the Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told the ECNEC meeting that the election commission's use of EVM in 100 seats in the national election will be taken up today.

At that time, he said that the money that will be approved for EVM will not be given together. These money will be given in the form of a phase.