Bangladesh election office ready to hold polls: EU

The visiting delegation of the European Union Wednesday said it believes that the Election Commission is prepared for holding the upcoming general elections.
“I believe the Election Commission is ready (for holding elections). There is a lot of work, but they’ll be ready when required,” William Hanna, head of EU delegation to Bangladesh, told reporters after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad at his secretariat.
“The EC is technically ready to carry out the elections in much better condition than years ago,” he added.
EC Secretary Muhammed Sadique was also present during the one-and-a-half-hours meeting that began from 9:30am.
“We have the aim to ensure that the elections are free and fair, that there’s transparency and that they are credible,” Hanna said.
He however said that the EU is yet to take decision on sending election observers, saying: “The decision on whether we will deploy observers depends very much on how preparations are.”
Talking to the reporters, the chief election commissioner said the meeting focused on preparations and technical aspects of the elections, rather than political issues.
Asked whether the EC can play a role in resolving the country’s ongoing political impasse, the CEC said: “We are the referees. We better not involve ourselves in it.”
The five-member EU Election Exploratory Mission, led by Balthasar Benz of the European External Action Service, arrived in Dhaka Saturday on a 17-day visit to discuss with authorities and stakeholders concerned and assess the pre-poll situation.
The EU is ready to provide technical support to the EC for conducting the upcoming national election, Hanna told reporters on September 9 after holding a two-hour meeting with Awami League at the party’s president’s Dhanmondi office in the capital.
The delegation had also met with the BNP and Jatiya Party, where it stressed the need for a dialogue to end the ongoing political impasses centring the poll-time government.
Earlier, United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco had visited Bangladesh in December last year and also May this year to foster dialogue and conductive conditions for the parliamentary election to be held any day between October 25 this year and January 24 next year.