Defiant EC says US, UK, EU’s funding withdrawal does not prove a ‘lack of trust’

Election Commission claims the UNDP’s termination of a project before schedule does not prove a ‘lack of trust’ in it by foreigners, as claimed by the BNP.

EC Secretary Md Sirazul Islam says they had already implemented all the project work.

“Moreover, the donors were not funding for over a year,” he claimed. “We have told them to close the project.”

“I don’t think there is any failure on the part of the EC on this issue.”

On Thursday, the UN agency announced the termination of the project - “Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh” - due to “withdrawal of funds” by donors such as the EU, the UK, and the US.

These countries, which expressed reservations about recent elections, were funding the project since April 2012.

The BNP, which boycotted the 2014 general elections and quit April’s city polls midway, said the move highlighted foreigners’ distrust of Bangladesh’s electoral system.

In a letter to the government, the EC said the UKAID and USAID, partners in the project, were not interested in funding it in future.

But their promised funding has already been utilised, it added.