A foreign delegation visiting Dhaka on Sunday expressed their disappointment with the refusal of BNP to hold a formal meeting with the delegation members.
The six-member delegation that arrived in Dhaka on July 28 at the invitation of the Election Monitoring Forum (EMF), expressed its disappointment while talking to the reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday (July 30).
Led by US political analyst Terry L. Easley, other members of the delegation are European Union political affairs journalist Nick Paul from Ireland, South Korean human rights activist Park Chung Chang, Japanese social activist YusufieSugu, UK author and researcher Michael John Sheriff and Chinese political analyst Andy Lin.
Leader of the delegation, Terry L Isley, who is a US citizen and the founder of Tenet Finance International Group, said, “We have come to Bangladesh to observe the pre-election situation of the country. We have been holding meetings with various stakeholders, including political parties and government organisations.”
“As part of our tasks, we also wanted to hold a meeting with the BNP to know about their opinion about the upcoming election. However, they (BNP) did not agree to sit with us, which left us disappointed,” said Terry L Isley.
He also said, “We wanted to meet with both the sides. Then the matter would have been more clear to us.”
The delegation, earlier in the morning on Sunday, held a meeting with the officials of the Election Commission, including the Chief Election Commission, at the EC office in the capital’s Agargaon. The foreign delegation held a separate meeting with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal at the secretariat.
Another member of the delegation, Nick Paul, who is an observer from the Ireland, said, “We had separate meetings with the CEC and the Minister of Home Affairs. At the meetings, we discussed the election process.”
“Since there is no caretaker system in the Constitution of Bangladesh, the Election Commission wants to conduct the upcoming National Parliamentary election free and fair within the framework of the Constitution,” he said.
After the meeting, delegation leader Terry L Isley, said, “As the Constitution of Bangladesh does not support the caretaker government, it requires an amendment in the constitution for holing the national election under a caretaker government. But this is not possible at this moment.”
Terry L Isley said he does not represent the US government, but he is a member of the international observer group.
“We think that the Election Commission under this government can organize a fair election,” he believes.
The six-member delegation was supposed to hold a meeting with State Minister for Foreign Affairs ShahriarAlam at the ministry on Sunday (July 30). The meeting is expected to be held later.
It should be mentioned that foreign diplomats in Dhaka, different international organisations and election observers from different countries have become active over the upcoming 12th National Election in Bangladesh.
As part of their seriousness, they already have started communication with different bodies of the government concerned so that they could engaged their representatives as the observers in the upcoming national election in Bangladesh.
Immediately after the departure of the six-member Election Exploratory Mission (ExM) from the European Union (EU), this six-member delegation from six different countries arrived in Dhaka on July 28 to assess the pre-election situation.
Besides, another four-member delegation from four more countries-- Maldives, Nepal, India, Shri Lanka and Bhutan-- is also scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on September 15.
The EU ExM delegation left Dhaka in the early hours of July 23 after a two-week visit to Bangladesh. The EU delegation left Dhaka after holding around 100 meetings, including with the Prime Minister, different ministers, political parties, Election Commission, Bangladesh Police, representatives from civil society, media, NGOs and other stakeholders concerned.
Meanwhile, a four-member delegation led by US undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights had a four-day visit to Bangladesh from July 11 to July 14. She was accompanied by Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, and Anjali Kaur, deputy assistant administrator of the USAID Asia bureau.
Moreover, diplomats from different embassies and missions in Dhaka have also become active centring the next parliamentary election in Bangladesh. They remain busy with holding meetings and discussions with different political parties aimed at a free and fair election in a peaceful manner.