The Head of the European Union delegation to Dhaka has urged not to interpret its decision of not monitoring Jan 5 polls as ‘taking sides’, but it should be viewed as part of its ‘long term support’ for Bangladesh’s democracy.
Published : 21 Dec 2013, 05:25 PM
William Hanna said they had waited until the last moment and when more than half of the seats had become uncontested, they found ‘no point’ to observe the elections.
“We waited so that people understand we don’t take sides,” he told bdnews24.com on Saturday.
The EU on Friday in a statement from Brussels said they halted their polls monitoring mission as it found Bangladesh’s major political parties could not ensure “transparent, inclusive and credible” elections.
He said EU did not take sides. “We don’t want our pulling out to be seen as supporting one party or monitoring to be seen as supporting the other side. That’s not the point.
“We want to support the democratic rights of the people to be able to go out and vote to choose next government,” he said, describing it as EU's 'long commitment to Bangladesh'.
He said their decision making process was complicated and “based on reporting, on discussions, on agreeing and then sending observations to our capital where leaders sit down, discuss, debate and then take decisions”.
The main opposition BNP has boycotted the polls expressing no confidence in the dispensation that will conduct the polls.
With the expiry of the deadline of nomination process to contest elections, more than half the seats in the 10th parliament returned winners without a contest.
Hanna said based on their long experiences of elections monitoring, they were clear what 'transparent, inclusive and credible elections' meant.
For them inclusive means, people have their chances to make their choice and credible means acceptable and sustainable.
He, however, said they did not decide anything about post elections, whether it would be acceptable to them.
“There is no point having hypothetical discussion,” he said, it remained “uncharted territory”.
The ambassador once again called for “dialogue, compromise and unconditional talks” so that both sides find a way down the middle, as EU remained “very concerned” about the appalling violence and its consequences on the life of the people and country’s economy.
“I think it would be great if people at the top could see that something is needed to be agreed or some understanding before the elections so that there will be a way forward as soon as possible and the disruption to people’s life and economy will stop."
He said the solution should be “politically acceptable and constitutionally viable and people know what that is”.
“We have to remain hopeful,” he said and that “we stand ready to deploy heavy machinery (elections observers) when the condition is right”.