Bangladesh News

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have called for recasting the Election Commission in Bangladesh so that it (EC) could work in a truly neutral manner.

The MEPs wish to see “a strong and decisive caretaker government”. They also urged President Iajuddin Ahmed’s interim administration to reconstitute the Election Commission so as “to ensure that the latter can perform its work in a truly neutral manner”.

The appeal to the caretaker government was made in a resolution adopted at the plenary session in Strasbourg on November 16 on the situation in Bangladesh ahead of the elections scheduled for early 2007, according to a release of EU parliament.

The MEPs said the government should “create a climate in which the voters will feel genuinely free to use their right to vote” and should “guarantee balance in the media during the election campaign”.

They urged the authorities to “put an end to the climate of impunity and to bring the perpetrators of violence and harassment directed towards journalists in Bangladesh to justice”.

They also urged the Election Commission to improve the quality and accuracy of the voter register in cooperation with domestic and international experts.

According to the EU Commission, the resolution said some 13 million invalid names have been added to the register.

The MEPs urged the political parties to reach agreement on all controversial electoral issues, to avoid political violence and instability and to develop political programmes, which will improve the standard of the population’s living condition.

They welcomed the commission’s decision to send an election observation mission during the forthcoming general elections.

The resolution “reaffirms the European Parliament’s commitment to Bangladesh’s unique tradition of religious tolerance and secularism, as enshrined in the country’s longstanding cultural tradition and artistic heritage, and as endorsed in the European Parliament’s previous resolutions”.

For their part, the resolution asked the Commission to monitor carefully the human rights situation, the political situation and press freedom in Bangladesh and draw up programmes in the framework of EU-Bangladesh cooperation to promote freedom of the press and freedom of speech.