State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has said that credibility of an election does not depend on any particular party, indicating the boycott call by a major opposition BNP.
“Everyone's participation in the election enhances the beauty. But a terrorist political party who does not believe in the independence of Bangladesh, does not believe in the constitution and constitution of Bangladesh; there is no need to show off or beautify (the election) with them. The participation of a single or any particular party is not mandatory to make the election credible,” he said.
The state minister was talking to the media on Tuesday after his meeting with a visiting commonwealth pre-election assessment team led by Linford Andrews.
The general election is scheduled to be held on January 7. A major opposition BNP announced to boycott the election as the government did not pay heed to their demand of a caretaker government to oversee the process.
The election will be held as per the constitution with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina remaining in her office and the Election Commission conducting the process.
The state minister recently at a seminar hoped that the BNP would join the election.
When asked what made him optimistic, he clarified: “BNP lost its acceptance to make an appeal to the international community by not taking part in the election in 2014. Their persuasion or acceptance to foreigners went to zero. You have seen these things, we have also seen that. If you want to survive as a political party, you have to participate in the elections. Till November 30, there is time for the nomination paper submission. It is open for anyone to come to the election till that day. It is also open for anyone to withdraw from the election.”
When asked whether the Commonwealth will send a delegation to observe the election, the state minister said that this decision will be taken by their officials.
“But our expectation is that they will come, we will make sure that they have the logistics and protocol that they need. They also had meetings with our protocol wing,” he said, adding that this assessment team would give their report to the headquarters as soon as possible.
“They had meetings with election commission, political parties, civil society and all relevant stakeholders,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina invited them to observe the election during her recent meeting with Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland in London.
When asked about their pre-election assessment, the state minister said, unlike other foreign delegates, the Commonwealth team knows well about South Asian politics and elections which are always chaotic.
He hoped that they would send a delegation to observe the election.
