By DPA,
Dhaka : The European Union (EU) Friday called Bangladesh’s state of emergency a negative factor for credible polls in the South Asian nation, urging the country’s authorities to lift the emergency.
“It is not ideal to begin an election process under a state of emergency. We hope the emergency will be lifted at some point of the election process to ensure a clean environment for the election,” Alexander Graf Lambsdoff, chief of the EU election observation mission in Bangladesh, told a press conference.
Bangladesh’s major political parties have also been asking the interim administration to lift the state of emergency.
The core EU election observation mission, which arrived earlier November, travelled to a number of districts to assess the pre-election atmosphere, talking to leading politicians, government officials, members of the civil society and foreign diplomats stationed.
The chief of the nine-member mission spoke of a generally positive atmosphere for the elections, as the major political parties have forged a consensus to join the polls scheduled for Dec 29.
Lambsdoff added that the situation was now better with an accurate voter rolls with photographs and an independent election commission.
The EU will deploy 150 election observers mission on the election-day.
The mission will announce a preliminary report two days after the election and a detailed report after two months of the election with recommendation for changes, if needed, for future elections.