United Nations’ assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco continued his untiring streak on Sunday spending much of his day meeting leaders of Bangladesh.
He was in a meeting with civil society leaders at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital after schedules with Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad and Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad.
Sources confirmed that Taranco called the Prime Minister’s Office in Tejgaon after meeting the CEC. However, it was not clear who he had a meeting with.
Among the civil society leaders present were Dr Kamal Hossain, Shadhik Mallik, Badiul Alam Majumder and Zamilur Reza Chowdhury. The meeting began sometime around 2:30pm.
The meeting with the CEC began at around 11am, Dhaka Tribune correspondent Mohammad Zakaria said. “Taranco left one and half hour later without talking to the media.”
Earlier in the day, Taranco held a brief meeting with Jatiya Party Chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad at the latter’s Baridhara residence.
The party advocated for a deferral to the polls-schedule and hoped for a leading role of the UN in the current political situation, Jatiya Party spokesperson said.
The envoy is in Dhaka at the deputation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for what is being said “to broker a political deal” ahead of Bangladesh’s elections.
On Saturday, the UN envoy met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and asked if the January 5 elections can be deferred. He supported polls inside constitutional limits.
However, main opposition BNP, who want elections under a non-partisan government and out of line with the constitution, kept mum about their meeting with Taranco.
Taranco said to have observed the need for a “level-playing field” instead of caretaker government for the upcoming elections.
The UN envoy’s visit comes in short difference to the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.
Earlier, US President Barack Obama had asked his officials to “ramp up talks” with India over Bangladesh issue ahead of the January 5 elections.
