Bangladeshis to choose their own govt thru fair polls: US official

Staff Reporter :
The USA has urged the government to create a safe environment for the political parties to campaign without facing intimidation and repression.
“We ask the Government of Bangladesh to create a safe environment for people to peacefully assemble and to voice their concerns, and relatedly, for opposition parties to campaign without facing intimidation and repression,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price during a press briefing on Monday told the reporters in Washington DC, the official website of US government said.
With respect to the political process and the next election in Bangladesh, the US government hopes for a robust civic participation, he said.
“The people of Bangladesh ultimately will be able to choose their own government through free and fair elections. That is our hope; that is what we continue to support,” Ned continued.
Ned Price was asked to make comment have did “Ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned the opposition if the BNP went superfluous in the name of anti-government movement, then opposition leader Khaleda Zia would be sent to jail again as 77-years-old former prime minister, staying at her house with limited access. And according to State Department reports, her imprisonment is a political ploy to remove her from the political process. So, will you urge the opposition leader of Bangladesh immediate release?”
In reply to it, he said, “We put, as you know, democracy and human rights at the center of our relationships around the world, at the center of our foreign policy. We as such regularly raise these issues with governments around the world, including the Government of Bangladesh.” “We do so both publicly, as I’ve done from this room, a number of times. We do so in our private engagements. And in doing so we urge the strengthening of democratic process and political institutions, adherence to the rule of law, and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout Bangladesh for all Bangladeshis,” he continued.
In recent times the US has been saying that the US wanted to see a free and fair election as well as the political parties should give space to carry out their campaign peacefully. Now BNP has been holding rallies in different divisional cities and facing obstructions from the ruling party quarters in the name of transport strikes to limit the opposition’s mass movement.
But defying such obstructions, the opposition has been carrying out their rallies and said that they are ready to make their rallies successful to rouse people against the ‘misrule’ of the government and handing over power to a caretaker government to arrange for a free and fair election.