The government on Monday deferred the Election Commission's project proposal of purchasing 200,000 new electronic voting machines (EVMs) worth some Tk8,711 crore.
The Planning Commission rejected the proposal due to the global economic situation, said Election Commission Secretary Jahangir Alam said at a press conference.
The project proposal was sent to Planning Commission for approval in October last year.
The Election Commission decided to use EVMs in 150 seats in the next parliamentary elections.
The current commission has the capacity to hold elections in 76 to 80 seats with Dhaka EVM machines, according to sources.
An initiative was taken to procure an additional 200,000 EVMs for voting to be held in more than 150 centres.
