Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Bangladesh on Sunday, announced that it had approved about 175 foreign observers for the national election going to be held next weekend, while setting aside the United States criticism of failing to secure accreditation for the US funded monitor.

Past elections in Bangladesh have been much chaotic and violent sometimes. International observers had rejected the 2014 vote (last vote), which the main opposition party has boycotted as there were no caretaker of the administration in order to oversee the whole process of election.

According to news reports, the US state department has on Friday said, it was let down by Bangladesh’s “inability to grant credentials and issue visas within the timeframe necessary” for majority of the international elections monitors from ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections), which was funded by the US government.

ANFREL has operated in around 57 of elections observation missions since 1997 across the Asia. ANFREL said it terminated its own observer mission on Saturday, because of the “significant delays in the accreditation approval by the Bangladesh Election Commission and visa approvals by the (foreign ministry)”.

On its official website, ANFREL on Sunday, wrote: “With ANFREL’s withdrawal, the organization registers its doubts regarding the integrity of the elections, especially with the reports on civil society restrictions and arrest of numerous opposition members.”

Ministry of foreign affairs of Bangladesh said ANFREL had canceled its election observation mission while approval was underway, with adding that it was much “disheartened” by the statement by state department.

The ministry said: “As of now, 175 foreign election observers from different countries and organizations have been accredited to undertake election monitoring missions.” It further did not disclosed any details which country would be monitoring the election.

The ministry said apart from foreign observers, the election commission had till registered about 118 local bodies in order to monitor the polls.

According to news reports, on Monday, tens of thousands of the armed forces would be deployed across the country as the vote’s preparation heats up.

The convener of National Unity Front (NUF) said: “We hope that this deployment will create a congenial electoral environment which was not existing before. Armed forces must create a level playing field for all parties and play a positive role.”

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