US wants fair polls, AL participation

Trackback URL

Download PDF

The United States has called on Bangladesh’s main opposition party to participate in January elections and urged the caretaker government to ensure the polls are conducted efficiently.
Led by Awami League (AL) leader Sheikh Hasina, the opposition is demanding that caretaker government head President Iajuddin Ahmed step down, saying fair elections were impossible with him at the helm.

It accuses the caretaker government of seeking to tilt elections set for January 23 in favour of the outgoing right-of-centre Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

“Obviously they may have their decisions, they may have their options but we think for the sake of voters, it is important that there be candidates that represent the different major political point of views,” US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said.

He said he had directly told Hasina and other political leaders during his visit to Bangladesh last month about the importance of their participation in the elections.

“So there is no question, I think, of our view, that we will like to see them participate and we will like to see them achieve the conditions that will be necessary to fairly participate and represent themselves in the election,” Boucher told a forum in Washington.

The AL is expected to make its decision on participating in the elections in a few days.

“So we have to see what happens,” said Boucher, who is in charge of South Asian affairs at the State Department.

“Perhaps it is the moment to watch and see what they decide. We are watching very closely to see what they decide.”

The interim government said Thursday it was making a last-ditch attempt to meet opposition demands for electoral reforms and ensure the polls can go ahead.

But President Iajuddin said he would not bow to mounting pressure to resign.

He told US Ambassador in Dhaka Patricia Butenis that his quitting was “unrealistic and impractical” and “will not happen,” his adviser Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury said Wednesday.

Boucher said he had talked to the president and “I think he is trying to manage the situation as best he can.

“He is certainly trying to do this in a way that meets the needs of his constitutional responsibilities well as the needs of the current situation.”

Asked to comment on some of the president’s “controversial” decisions and calls for his resignation, Boucher said, “if he resigns, what next?”

The US official then said “the best thing” is for all parties to cooperate and ensure that the elections were held in a fair, non-violent and credible manner.

The country, long plagued by poverty, corruption, natural disasters and political feuding, has been in turmoil since the BNP’s five-year mandate expired in October.

The South Asian nation is also no stranger to coups — although government officials have dismissed the possibility of yet another one.

Leave a Reply