Awami League General Secretary of Obaidul Quader has said that their party wants the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the next general elections.

He made the remarks during a view exchange meeting of the Election Commission held at the Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon on Tuesday afternoon (June 28).

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal attended the meeting, which was the third phase of meetings with political parties regarding EVM.

Thirteen political parties including Awami League were invited at the meeting.

Kazi Habibul Awal said, "We held dialogues before, where many have said in favour of EVMs. Also, many have directly said that they would not take part in the polls if EVMs are used.

"We will take a decision after consulting with all political parties. We will ultimately have to take decision in this regard," he added.

Previously, the Cumilla City Corporation polls was held on June 15, where the voting took place as a trial under the new Election Commission.

Besides, glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the Cumilla city polls led to confusion among voters which caused long queues at many voting centres.

Meanwhile, some voters of Ward No. 19 claimed that the EVMs used at the Newra M I High School polling station had only Awami League's "Boat" symbol on display to choose from.

At present, the EC has 1.54 lakh voting machines, with which it is possible to hold vote in about 100 seats.

In 2011, the then CEC ATM Shamsul Huda introduced EVM voting for the first time. At that time, they made a machine from Buet for Tk 12,000. But that machine failed in the 2015 Rajshahi City Corporation elections. As a result, the Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed led commission decided to make a new and better EVM by eliminating all the machines taken from Buet.

KM Nurul Huda's commission made more advanced machines worth Tk2 lakh from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory.