Bangladesh
EU | EC European Union not to send observers to elections
Dhaka, Sept 22: Based on the report prepared by the pre-observation team, the European Union (EU) has decided not to send an observation team to the upcoming national elections in Bangladesh. It is said that the EU may give this information in a formal statement.
According to sources, the European Union has written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Election Commission of Bangladesh on Wednesday and informed them of this opinion. Their election observation mission does not consider the political environment in Bangladesh suitable for election observation.
The decision was taken after discussions among EU member states on election observation based on the report of the pre-observation team. Election observation teams are not sent, but small expert teams may be sent to collect election data.
The European Union says, according to the observation of the pre-observation team, Bangladesh is considered to not have an environment conducive to elections at the moment. It is risky to send an observation team in such a situation. However, if there is an election in Bangladesh at the scheduled time, a small expert team may be sent by the European Union to facilitate the information of that election from its own sources.
In this regard, an official of the Election Commission said, "We also heard about not sending observers from the European Union. But still no mail or direct letter has been sent to us. In most cases these letters come to the EC through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Meanwhile, Election Commission (EC) Secretary Md. Jahangir Alam said that the European Union (EU) has decided not to send a full-fledged election observation team due to lack of budget.
He said this in response to questions from reporters at his office in the election building on Thursday.
Jahangir Alam said that the EU Head of Delegations through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they had met with various stakeholders in July and thanked them as it was fruitful. In that email, he also said that their head office had decided that it was financially feasible to send a full-fledged mission to observe the elections in the fiscal year 2023-24. However, due to lack of budget, it has not been approved, or has decided not to send it for the time being. However, the EU said in the mail that they will continue to communicate with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal.
