EVM lets down some senior citizen voters

A large number of voters faced debacle in casting ballots through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Dhaka City Corporation polls on Saturday.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda and Gano Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain also faced the same difficulty at the IES School and College at Uttara centre and at the Viqarunnisa Noon School and College polling centre under the Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) respectively as their fingerprints did not match with the server information.
Both of them had to manually punch in their NID numbers to cast votes.
Although CEC and Dr Kamal Hossain could manage the presiding officer to be able to cast their votes through traditional method but senior journalist Mrinal Krishna Roy had failed to manage them for at least three hours.
"I went to cast my vote at the    Ananda Bhuban centre in Nayapaltan at 10:00am. Unfortunately, my fingerprint did not match and nobody wanted to listen to me. Later I called one of my colleagues, who asked me to go to the centre again and at 1:00pm I was able to cast my vote�it is an embarrassing situation, I heard that the presiding officer would address the complaint after he completes taking 100 votes," Mrinal said.
"My fingerprint did not match with the server information," was a common cry in both the city corporation areas, when people failed to match their fingerprint with the server information, some went to the presiding officer but most left the polling centre in anger as they failed to cast their vote for their favourite candidates."
The CEC said, "My fingerprint may not match as it was taken eight to nine years back. It could also not match if someone's fingertips are sweaty or slightly wet," he added.
He further said, "No one will go back home without casting his or her vote even if such a problem arises," he said adding that there are three to four ways to cast votes.
CEC Huda told journalists that if anyone's fingerprints do not match, then there were several other ways for the people to cast their vote.
But who cares?
According to the EC, it first used EVM in the Cumilla City Corporation polls in 2012. In the 2015 Rajshahi City Corporation election some machines had stopped working on the election-day, prompting the EC to discontinue using them further. Instead, the EC took up around Tk 4,000 crore project to buy new EVMs.
In the December 30 parliamentary polls of 2018, the EC used EVM in six constituencies, including Dhaka-6. During the commission's dialogues ahead of the general election, 35 of the 40 registered parties, including the BNP and its allies, opposed the idea of EVM use.
However, the ruling Awami League and its allies Workers Party of Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction led by Hasanul Haq Inu and Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal (M-L) and Zaker Party -- supported EVM use. After the December 2018 general elections, new EVMs were used in some polling stations in different city corporation elections, by polls, and upazila polls.
Gano Forum President Kamal Hossain has blamed voters' lack of confidence in electronic voting machines or EVMs for the low turnout in the Dhaka city polls on Saturday.
Meanwhile, local government and election expert, Dr Tofael Ahmed said lack of proper campaigning of EVM is the main reason for the failure of EC to popularize the new technology.
The EC should have held mass campaigns before the announcement of the polls schedule of the Dhaka city polls.
"Due to lack of proper campaigning, the EC has failed to attract voters to come to the polling stations. For fear of violence, many voters did not come to the polling stations to cast their votes," he added.