Diplomatic Correspondent :
The European Parliament will not send observer in Bangladesh on the occasion of the upcoming 11th National Election scheduled to be held on December 30.
The Co-chairs of the European Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group quoted MEPs David McAllister (EPP, DE) and Linda McAvan (S and D, UK) to have said in a statement.
“No individual Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has been mandated to observe the election to comment about this electoral process on its behalf,” the statement said. “The European Parliament will not observe this electoral process and consequently will neither comment about the process nor on the results that will be announced afterwards. Moreover, there will be no European Union Election Observation Mission,” it reads.
“Any statement issued by members of the European Parliament about the elections therefore do not represent in any way the view of the European Parliament or the European Union,” the statement said.
The European Parliament stated its position as regards the election in its resolution of November 15, 2018, which expressed the hope that the election would will be “peaceful, transparent and participatory so that citizens can take a genuine political choice.
It urged the political forces to refrain from any violence or instigation of violence during the electoral period.
The European Parliament’s announcement follows the EU’s decision not to send observers to Bangladesh this time.
In the EU system, the EP only sends a limited number of observers who then become embedded into the EU election observer missions.
This time, the EU earlier in October informed the Bangladesh Election Commission that they would not send their full-fledged election observer mission. Only two ‘electoral experts’ may arrive. Ambassador Rensje Teerink indicated “resource constraint” as reason. “From the EU side, we see a growing demand from partner countries to have an EU EOM. In the context of constrained resources, the EU has to make a difficult choice on where to deploy.”
Earlier, the EU cancelled two election observer missions for Bangladesh in 2006, when the election was postponed, and in 2014, when a major opposition BNP’s boycott led more than half of the seats elected uncontested.
