Will send four-member election observation team: EU informs EC

The European Union (EU) has officially informed the Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh that it will send a four-member team to observe the upcoming national election.

"A letter, sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was received today.  In the letter, the EU has said that it will send a four-member observer team. They will stay in the country by the schedule of the election," EC Additional Secretary Ashok Kumar Debnath told The Business Standard.

According to the letter, the team will visit Bangladesh from 21 November 2023 to 21 January 2024 to observe the polls.

Earlier on 15 October, after a meeting at the Gulshan residence of EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley, Awami League Presidium member Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Faruk Khan told reporters that representatives from ten EU countries informed the Awami League about sending a four-member election observation team.

He also informed that the EU team will leave the country after the polls end.

According to the Election Commission (EC), the voting for the national election will be held between the end of December and the first week of January. The election schedule may be released in the middle of November.

Earlier on 21 September, the European Union decided not to send a full team of observers during Bangladesh's upcoming national elections citing budgetary constraints, Election Commission Secretary Md Jahangir Alam told media, quoting an email by the EU to the Election Commission.

According to an EC official, the email said, "At present, it is not sufficiently clear whether the necessary conditions will be met at the point in time when the elections take place."

"The EU is currently exploring other options to accompany the electoral process," the email further said.

The EU did not send any observers in the last two national elections in 2014 and 2018.

The EU had sent a full-fledged mission in the 2008 elections when it deployed the largest international observation mission in Bangladesh with 150 observers from 25 EU Member States, plus Norway and Switzerland.