Dr. Tareq Shamsur Rehman, Dept of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University:
There are only 3 months left till the election: the schedule announcement in October, then the actual election in December. Therefore, I believe that there could be some ulterior motive behind the sudden adoption of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) by the Election Commission (EC).
What might be that motive, I cannot be sure of that for now. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised by some. The main thing is, the EC’s decision has to be satisfying to all circles of society. But the EVM decision has led to the reputation of the EC being under question. Obviously, there will be concern by the people questioning the sudden adoption of EVMs. If the EVM adoption was long planned out, why not make the adoption one or two years ago?

Furthermore, the decision should not have been taken in haste, as the opposition parties have objected to it. What the EC should have done is to take the consensus all political parties beforehand. It could have brought up the topic during one of its many dialogues with the parties. The people have not taken well to the sudden decision. There has been much criticism from political parties as well.

Recently, quite a few political parties in India have proposed abandoning EVMs. Even the North Carolina elections in the United States don’t use EVMs. Their reasoning is that EVMs cannot guarantee 100% neutrality.

There has even been objection from within the EC itself. A commissioner has given their own reasoning for it. Given that there has been objection from the EC itself, I hope that EVMs will not be used in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Based on an interview by Ashiq Rahman, translated by Abrar Hussain