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News & Comment
‘Democratic Circus’ in Bangladesh before National Election:
Debates on EVM is immaterial when the So-called Democratic System itself is Rotten to the Core
News
Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) has decided to amend the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 in order to use electronic voting machines (EVM) in the upcoming 11th national election. EC has already submitted Tk40 billion project for purchase, maintenance and use of 150,000 EVMs.
Comment
The ruling party Awami League is in favor of using EVMs in the national polls but BNP and the left-leaning political parties have always opposed the idea, expressing concern that the machines could be used to rig the election. Political parties are busy debating either in favor or against the use of the EVM and putting forward their arguments. Analysists and so called intellectuals are also presenting their views on this issue in the media. Concerns were raised from different quarters whether the EC is losing its credibility by touching off the political debate with the sudden move to use the EVM in the general election that is only few months away. At the same time some people expressed their suspicion that such a big amount of public money would simply be wasted and misused.
But for general people of Bangladesh, the use of EVM is an irrelevant issue taking away the main debate i.e., the usefulness of the very election process under the current secular-democratic political system. Election even if it happens to be free and fair will not bring about any change to the fate of this nation because the corrupt system breeds corruption only. You can at best change your ruling leaders and not the ruling system through these elections. Hence, elections have become meaningless to people; nothing more than an entertainment show.
Election engineering and vote rigging are common features of secular-democratic system, and EVM just being a machine can’t change the character of this corrupt system. It can only accelerate that corruption digitally.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammad Kamal
Media Office Member of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh