The European Union on Wednesday told the Election Commission (EC) that it would not send its election observers to Bangladesh, if the next general elections is not participated by all political parties, EC officials confirmed.
The EU cleared its stance at an hour-long meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Wednesday. The four election commissioners, however, were not part of the meeting.
The delegation asked the EC about the announcement of the polls’ schedule, and its preparations to make the polls free, fair and inclusive.
According to sources, the CEC in reply, said: “All political parties have the responsibility of ensuring their participation in elections, it is not the commission’s obligation.”
Later, the EU delegation told the commissioner that its election observers would come only after being ensured of an election participated by all political parties.
Following the meeting, EU ambassador to Bangladesh William Hanna told the media of the EU’s involvement with the EC over the years and its continuous support.
“Currently we have projects worth €10m with the EC, as we are responsible for financing voters’ list creation, ID projects and other matters. We are ready to provide the commission with technical support, so that it can hold the polls in a much better way than the past,” he said.
About the deployment of EU observers, Hanna said: “We will have to report to the headquarters. Deployment of our observers depends on how the preparations are. The decision will be taken at the higher level of the EU.”
He believed that the EC was ready to hold the polls. “We had a very good and fruitful discussion on all the aspects of the elections.”
When asked if they discussed how participation of all political parties could be ensured in the next polls, Hanna denied making any comment but said they have been discussing all the modalities of how the elections could be organised in a free and fair manner.
On the other hand, after the meeting, the CEC told reporters that an initiative of political understanding is a matter of political decision.
“There are many senior and wise leaders in the country. They [leaders] understand the public’s pulse, and are capable of making decisions,” he said.
“We are the referees. We do not want to get involved in the matter,” the CEC said.
However, Kazi Rakibuddin said the EC would sign an agreement with the EU before their observers would come to cover the next parliamentary polls.
He said the commission usually fixes polls’ schedule about 40/45 days ahead of the elections. During this time the commission will call for international observers.
The CEC said at the meeting he confirmed his pledge to hold the next parliamentary election in free, fair and transparent manner.
“We discussed technical issues and sought support for video surveillance in all the polling stations.”
When asked if there were any suggestions from the EU, the CEC said they did not give any suggestion and were not eligible for doing so.
In 2008, the previous EC had allowed 20 foreign agencies including the EU and 120 NGOs to observe the ninth parliamentary elections. About 1.6 million foreign and local observers were engaged in the process. 150 election observers from EU observed the last parliamentary elections.