Staff Reporter :
Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Tuesday said the International Community enquired about the Election Commission’s (EC) capacity in holding the free and fair election.
“We have discussed with the foreign diplomats. They wanted to know whether the EC has the capacity to conduct free and fair election,” said Nurul Huda in a joint briefing after a meeting with them at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital.
UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert Watkins and some 30 foreign diplomats took part in the meeting.
The four election commissioners and EC Secretary were also present on the occasion.
The CEC said that they had informed the international community about EC’s branches and strength to make any election fair and transparent.
“We have many examples of holding fair and credible polls in the past,” he said.
“We hope that all the political parties will take part in the upcoming election to help stabilise democracy,” he said.
Nurul Huda said that the international community assured that they would support us with technical assistance for the purpose.
The Commission also sought financial assistance from the community, the CEC said.
He, however, said they had no talks regarding electronic voting machines (EVMs) at the meeting.
Turning to the delimitation of constituencies, he said, the EC is mulling whether the constituencies can be re-demarcated on the basis of voters size instead of population size.
If the delimitation of constituencies is redesigned on the basis of population, the discrimination among the constituencies would increase.
In the briefing, Robert Watkins, also the UNDP Resident Representative, said they want to provide technical assistance to the Election Commission to arrange free and fair election.
Replying to a question, he said they had no discussion about formation of the ‘election-time’ government as it is beyond their jurisdiction.
He said the EC has specific laws to arrange fair election, but participation of all political parties is essential.
Robert Watkins said it was important for the international community to meet the members of the new Election Commission in person to learn about their planned activities for ongoing and future elections in Bangladesh.
