Bangladesh News

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz yesterday said he is not worried about the growing political crisis centring the demands for his immediate resignation while the United Nations (UN) local chief has expressed concern about the ongoing political violence.
“Why should I be worried?” said an apparent nonchalant Aziz responding to a query whether he is worried about the political confrontation in the streets.

The next parliamentary election will be held in time, he said while leaving the office amid tight security.

After a meeting with the CEC and three other election commissioners in the afternoon, UN Resident Coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien told reporters that they are very much concerned about the ongoing political violence in Bangladesh.

“You probably know that the UN secretary-general has expressed his concern twice about the political violence in Bangladesh and he urged the major political parties to reach an amicable consensus,” Renata said.

The UN delegation led by the resident coordinator discussed with the EC observing the next parliamentary election.

About 300 foreign observers from different parts of the world will come here to observe the election, she said.

The UN will send two observation teams — one in December and another before the polls, she said.

They [election commissioners] are working normally and no sign of anxiety is seen among the election commissioner about the ongoing political crisis, Secretary to the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat Abdur Rashid Sarkar said at a press briefing.

During the meeting with the UN delegation, different aspects of providing the international observers with facilities to observe the next election were discussed, the EC secretary said.

“The Election Commission has finalised a policy for the international observers with a new provision for ensuring the neutrality of the interpreters. Politically biased persons will not be allowed to do the task of interpretation for the international observers,” he said.

Deputy commissioners and superintendents of police will ensure security for international observers, said the EC secretary who had held a meeting with the secretaries of the foreign, home, health and information ministries yesterday morning and discussed the issue of foreign observers.

The printing task is going on in full swing, he said when asked whether the task of printing the voter list has been stopped on grounds of faults in the updated electoral rolls.

Vendors sent a letter to the EC secretariat on November 6 seeking guidelines to remove the faults in the updated voter list before printing, sources at the EC secretary said, adding that the vendors cited faults that include some names of male voters in the list of female voters and inconsistency in the serial number of voters.

The EC secretariat on November 9 directed the district election officers to correct the faults.

“The district election officers will be responsible as the registration officer for preparing the voter list, if the guidelines are not followed to correct the manuscript of the updated voter list,” the EC secretariat circular said.

Meanwhile, following purchase of four new cars costing Tk 72 lakh by the EC secretariat, rumour spread among the EC officials that a few election commissioners may be appointed to make the EC effective.