Voters to get back confidence with army deployment: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Monday said voters will get back their confidence with the deployment of army ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections.

“I think, people will get back their confidence through army deployment. The main aim of army deployment is to boost the confidence of people,” he said.The CEC came up with the remarks while visiting an EVM training workshop at Dhaka Residential Model School and College. Nurul Huda said the presence of army will help the EC hold a fair election. “I believe any unexpected situation can be reined in from now on.”

Mentioning that army can do everything whatever necessary to maintain the law and order, Nurul Huda said, “If any situation is created in front of the army which needs to be dealt with the army can do that at their own initiative. They (Army) will perform duty following the ‘In Aid to Civil Power Act’.”

About the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the CEC said EVMs will be managed by the EC officials and army men will be there to help them. “The Election Commission officials will be assigned to manage the EVMs. Skilled and trained members of army will be there to help them,” he said.

Calling upon the political parties which are still doubtful about EVMs to visit their training programmes, the CEC said there was confusion among some political parties about EVM. “That’s why we picked only six constituencies for it [EVM],” he said.

Replying to a question about BNP’s demand for holding a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on December 27, he said, “It’s a matter of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and I’ll talk to the DMP to know whether there’s any threat centering the rally.”

source: UNB