Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday said Installation of CCTV cameras in secret polling booths is infringement of privacy and inference to the fundamental rights of the citizens.
“The secret booths will no longer remain secret, if CCTV cameras are installed there to see who votes for which symbol and show it to others. If so, it would be infringement of privacy as per the opinions of the legal experts,” he said.
Hasan, also a joint general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, was replying to a question over the recently cancelled Gaibandha-5 by-election, while he was exchanging views with reporters at Bangladesh Secretariat here in the capital.
The Election Commission has installed CCTV cameras in the polling stations to monitor the Gaibandha-5 by-polls remotely from Dhaka and cancelled the election, watching ‘massive irregularities’ through the CCTV cameras.
The Information Minister said the secret booth should remain secret. “The people should vote secretly. It is their right,” he said.
He said it is not his own opinion, rather people expressed such opinions on social media, and journalists and experts in media.
“The general people and jurists are of the opinion that it (installation of CCTV cameras in secret polling booths) is an infringement of privacy and it means interference with fundamental rights,” he added.
Hasan said once Shamim Osman MP probably showed the media whom he voted for during the Narayanganj City Corporation Election. Then the EC served a notice against him.
Noting that it is applicable for the EC as well, he said if the Election Commission sees it itself and shows it to others, it would also be 'infringement of privacy'.
He said there is nothing wrong with the installation of CCTV cameras in the polling stations, not in secret booths, to monitor if any unwanted person enters or chaos and violence takes place there. If the Election Commission finds it helpful, there is no barrier here, he added.
When asked about the reason for sending the information secretary on forced retirement, the minister said, “There is definitely a reason. But I don’t know the underlying cause.”