Bangladesh News

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) yesterday said the state of emergency is a negative factor for a free and fair election but hoped that the authorities will lift the emergency prior to the polls and ensure security to all concerned.

It, however, said the positive factors for this year’s elections are that the Election Commission is now more independent and people have confidence in the voter list.

Speaking at a press conference at Hotel Sheraton, chief observer of the mission Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the role of the army is non-existent and they can be called for the sake of security reasons only if the authorities decide to do so.

“Generally of course, it is not ideal to begin the electoral process with the state of emergency. We feel that emergency was restricting the right to assembly and the freedom of expression. We hope that the state of emergency can be lifted at some point before election day,” Alexander said.

An important point, however, is that any law enforcement agency must respect that the election environment is free from any sort of intimidation during campaigns, he told newsmen.

Terming vulnerable communities and polling stations a very important issue, he said, “It is part of our observation to strike a right balance between free environment and security and safety of everybody involved in the polling process.”

The core team of EUEOM arrived in Bangladesh on November 7 and it has met the election commissioners, top leaders of the major political parties, foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and a few domestic election observers. Forty-four long-term observers have already been deployed across the country who will be soon joined by 88 more observers before the polls.

Stating that the polls situation this time is different compared to the situation two years ago, the chief observer of the EUEOM said all stakeholders they talked to are convinced that the election should be held as slated on December 29.

“Two years back one party was boycotting. Now both parties want to participate. Now, I hope that there will be a level playing field on election day.”

He said he hopes the election results are accepted by Bangladeshi people and all others concerned.

Alexander said democratic elections will have losers and winners and therefore losers have a great responsibility for the stability of democracy while it is the responsibility of the winners to respect the losers, he said.

Asked if there is any possibility of boycott by any political party, he said, “It will be an unfortunate development no matter who decides what and a boycott will be a very unfortunate development.”

When asked for his comment on the fact that two political parties have objections about a few domestic election observation organisation, the EUEOM head Alexander said domestic observers are very important and they can be extremely helpful to increase the credibility of the electoral process.

“Therefore, generally speaking I would say that domestic observers should be allowed to the degree that is possible,” he said.

Asked if the mission would pull out observers if the state of emergency is not lifted, Alexander, also a member of parliament in Germany, said any such speculation at this point would be irresponsible.

Responding to another question on whether the mission found any stakeholders supporting the state of emergency, he said only a few organisations the mission talked to did not mind the state of emergency for the sake of security issues, while all others said there should be free environment for campaign and clearly favoured lifting of the state of emergency.

Asked about EUEOM’s expectation of the elections when a certain political party has already violated rules of the Election Commission by not nominating candidates through grassroots level, he said they would not make any comment on the nomination process of parties now because the nomination process is still ongoing.

“We will evaluate once the nomination process is over based on the law here and international standards.”

The EUEOM will observe the electoral process including the nomination of candidates, campaign activities and the electoral framework and tools, media environment, voting, counting and tabulation processes.

The mission will present a preliminary statement within 48 hours of the close of polls and a final report two months after the end of the electoral process.

Deputy Chief Observer of the mission Graham Elsom and election expert Maria Espinosa were also present at the press conference.