State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has said the European Union’s decision not to send a full-fledged election observation mission will not affect the acceptability of the upcoming general election in Bangladesh.
The state minister was replying to a reporter’s question at the Foreign Service Academy after an event on Bangladesh-Vietnam relations on Thursday.
Earlier, Election Commission Secretary Md Jahangir Alam told the media that the EU had informed the commission that it would not send a full-fledged election observation mission due to financial constraints.
Shahriar Alam said the EU had not yet informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of its decision yet.
"We will let you know the moment we are informed. The non-arrival of European Union observers will not have any impact on the holding of the election. At the same time, there will be no impact on the acceptance of the election."
"The past elections also say the same. This is my response today. We will give more details when we are informed officially," he said.
The EU did not observe the last two elections, held in 2014 and 2018.
However, it sent a pre-election observation mission to evaluate the situation in July.
The EU’s final decision came after receiving that mission’s report.