‘US not yet confirmed sending election observers’
Staff Reporter :
The United States has not yet confirmed sending election observers to oversee the 12th parliamentary election in Bangladesh to be held on January 7.
However, India, Japan and Palestine have confirmed that their observers would monitor the election.
Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Seheli Sabrin disclosed the information during the weekly briefing on Sunday.
She said that India would send three observers, Japan 16 and Palestine six to oversee the upcoming election.
“The United States has not yet confirmed its participation in election observation,” she said in reply to a question from the journalists.
She further stated that the EU expert mission would be present in Bangladesh until January 21 to oversight the election.
In addition, the OIC, and the Arab League have also expressed interest in the election to send observers.
“The applications we have received are being scrutinised.
We will let the Election Commission know about the confirmation of the foreign observers gradually,” she said.
The participation of the foreign election observers has become a crucial issue for the general election because some of the visiting teams, including European Union had not found the pre-election environment favourable.
EU later said that they would not send a big team; rather they would dispatch a small team to monitor the election.
On the other hand, on October 15, the joint US Pre-Election Assessment Mission (PEAM) stated that the upcoming parliamentary election in Bangladesh would be a litmus test of the country’s commitment to a democratic, participatory and competitive political process.
In their assessment, the mission found the primary problem was lack of constructive engagement among key political actors and the best way to end the stalemate is through good faith dialogue.
They also said that the current political environment presents several challenges to electoral integrity, including uncompromising and zero-sum politics, highly charged rhetoric, political violence, a widespread climate of uncertainty and fear, contracting civic space and freedom of expression, and a trust deficit among citizens, political leaders, and other stakeholders.
The Mission stated five recommendations, which include moderate rhetoric and engage in open and substantive dialogue on key election issues; Protect freedom of expression and ensure an open civic space where dissent is respected; Commit to nonviolence and hold perpetrators of political violence accountable; and Create conditions to allow all parties to engage in meaningful political competition, including bolstering independent election management.
Apart from it, the US government has been pushing for the government to hold a free and fair election in different occasions. In order to facilitate the government and the people’s willingness to hold a free, fair, inclusive and credible election, the US has imposed visa restrictions on the Bangladeshi individuals whoever will be involved in manipulating the elections.
However, the government spokespersons are stating that such visa restriction is interference in the internal affairs of the country.
But political parties especially Bangladesh Nationalist Party and political analysts said that such visa restrictions has created huge pressure on the government.
