Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Monday said the Election Commission didn’t direct ruling party lawmaker AKM Bahauddin Bahar to leave his home town during the recently held Cumilla City Corporation. “He (Bahauddin) is undoubtedly a very important person. But the Election Commission can’t order anyone, even an ordinary person to leave his place (permanent address) let alone him (Bahauddin),” said the CEC at a press conference at his office in the city’s Agargaon area.  “We didn’t issue any order to Mr Bahauddin to leave his place. We humbly requested him to assist the Election Commission for the sake of maintenance of the electoral codes. We still have the letter,” he said. But the news spread everywhere that the EC issued a directive, but can’t implement it, he said. The CEC said an outsider can be ordered to leave the electoral place, but Cumilla is the permanent address of the lawmaker. The EC instructed local MP AKM Bahauddin Bahar not to stay in the area after EC received the allegation of his campaigning in the Cumilla city polls. But he did not leave the area and rather filed a writ petition in the High Court. Also read: Elections to Cumilla city, other local bodies were peaceful: CEC The EC has been widely criticized for this. Explaining the matter, Habibul Awal said that Bahauddin did not break any law. The CEC explained that they received an allegation that he was secretly campaigning and so the commission requested him.  "He may or may not keep the request. But it would have been better if he had left," he said. He added that EC did not see him take part in public campaigns. But some say he took part tactically. One of our expectations was that if EC requested him, it will end all confusion. Awal said the EC forced an influential minister to leave the area within an hour as he was an outsider.  READ: CEC: Not fully confident over EVM yet Election Commissioners- Brigadier General (Retd.) Ahsan Habib Khan, Begum Rasheda Sultana, Md. Alamgir and EC Secretary Humayun Kabir Khandaker were also present. The Cumilla city election was held on June 15 where Awami League candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat won as mayor defeating his nearest independent rival Monirul Islam Sakku by 343 votes.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Tuesday said the commission is not yet fully confident over the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the next parliamentary elections. "We’ve sat in five meetings, but we could not be fully confident over EVM. There will be more meetings to review it (the use of EVM). We want to gain the confidence of everyone over EVM,” he said. Also read: Poll panel still lacks capacity to use EVMs in all 300 seats, says CEC The CEC was speaking at a press conference at his office in the city’s Agaogaon area. Habibul claimed that he did not announce any ‘peculiar’ reward of 10 million dollars in case of detecting any fault in EVM. "Only five-seven days ago, we informed everyone through letters that we’ve not reached any decision on EVM. We are not bowing our heads to any pressure....We haven't decided yet,” he said. According to media reports, Election Commissioner Anisur Rahmnan at a recent function in Madaripur said that the CEC announced a reward of 10 million dollar if anyone can detect fault in the EVM. In this regard, Habibul said it is not the remark of the commission.  He, however, said that election commissioners should be careful and responsible in their remarks. Also read: EC to hold polls with cooperation from all parties: CEC About the next national election the CEC said, "We have no intention of turning the election into a farce. We’re saying from the heart that the healthy trend should continue through fair and participatory elections.” Election commissioners Ahsan Habib Khan, Rasheda Sultana, Md Alamgir and Anisur Rahman were present.