"The Election Commission is not ready to use the EVMs in the national level. The law will have to be changed for this. But we have already done some test-runs in several local government elections," Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed told reporters after a meeting at the Election Commission.
His remarks came after six months of speculations over the use of the EVMs in the general elections.
He, however, said that EVMs would be used experimentally in the Rangpur City Corporation polls.
The last EC, led by then CEC A T M Shamsul Huda, had successfully used voting machines in one ward during Chittagong polls and in one-third of polling centres in Narayanganj elections, and turned Comilla city polls and Narsingdi municipal by-polls into completely EVM-based elections.
Main opposition BNP has been opposing the use of the EVMs in all elections since the EC begun the experimental use.
Uncertainty had loomed over use of EVMs in the elections after CEC Kazi Rakib took over the EC in February though the government and the immediate past EC had taken a strong position to press for its use in the next national elections.
The Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has been providing technical assistance to the EC for manufacturing and use of the EVMs.
IICT Director Prof Lutful Kabir in March had told bdnews24.com that the new Election Commission was not paying 'proper attention' to the issue.
Other Election Commissioners had earlier hinted the Commission's confusion over the issue, but CEC Rakib on Sunday confirmed for the first time that the EC was not ready to use the EVMs in the parliamentary elections.
After taking oath as the CEC on Feb 15, Rakib on Feb 28 had said that the newly-formed Election Commission would again take the initiatives to hold dialogue with political parties to make the use of EVMs in the national polls acceptable to everyone.
But no initiatives have been taken since then.
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