Dhaka: BNP on Wednesday urged the Election Commission (EC) to rescind its plan to amend the Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the next polls.

‘We would like to clearly say that we won’t accept the use of EVMs in the 11th parliamentary elections. We call upon the Election Commission to refrain from its evil efforts to use the EVMs and amend the RPO,’ said BNP senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.

Speaking at a discussion, he also warned that the EC will have to be accountable to people if it does not back off from such move.

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee member, alleged that the government has taken the evil plan to use the EVMs in 100 constituencies to rig votes as it has got isolated from people.

He also questioned as to why the EC has suddenly taken the move for using the EVMs while most political parties during the talks with the Commission opposed its use in the national election.

Mosharraf said the ruling party is unwilling to hold fair and transparent polls as it knows most ministers and MPs will lose their security deposits if people can exercise their right to franchise.

‘We think the move to amend RPO and use EVMs was taken with a motive to prolong the current unwritten one-party Baksal rule,’ he observed.

Earlier, at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the EC’s decision of using EVMs is ill-motivated one.

‘The Election Commission is planning to use the controversial EVMs in the next polls against people’s will as it’s working at the behest of the government,’ he alleged.

Referring to newspaper reports, Rizvi said the opposition parties in India two days back urged their Election Commission not to use EVMs in their election as such electronic system can be manipulated.

He said the EC is trying to use the EVMs in the next polls to create a scope for election engineering.