The European Union is not sending an election observers team to the upcoming national elections in Bangladesh. The decision was taken by the European Union based on the report prepared by the pre-monitoring team. The matter has already been reported to the Bangladesh government by the EU.
The EU is expected to announce this information in a formal statement on Thursday (September 21).According to sources, the European Union has formally informed the Election Commission of Bangladesh that its election assessment mission does not consider the political environment in Bangladesh suitable for election observers.
On Wednesday (September 20), the European Union sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Election Commission of Bangladesh and informed them of this opinion.
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 2018, the European Union sent a small observation team to the elections.
The decision was taken after discussions among EU member states on election observation based on the report of the pre-observation team.
The European Union says, according to the observations of the pre-observation team, it is considered that there is no conducive environment for elections in Bangladesh 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.
When the Election Commission was contacted in this regard, they said that no such letter has come yet.An official, who did not want to be named, said, “I heard about not sending the European Union election observers.” 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.
A six-member EU pre election observers team visited Bangladesh from July 8 to 23 at the invitation of the Election Commission. The delegation mainly assesses the scope, planning, budget, logistics and security of the election observation mission. The pre-election observation team met with representatives of the Government of Bangladesh, election-related authorities, representatives of the international community, law enforcement agencies, political leaders, civil society and media representatives.
It should be noted that a pre-election observers team of 6 EU members visited Bangladesh from July 8 to 23 at the invitation of the Election Commission. The delegation mainly assesses the scope, planning, budget, logistics and security aspects of the election observation mission. The delegation held separate meetings with representatives of the Government of Bangladesh, the Election Commission, law enforcement agencies, political party leaders, civil society and media representatives.