Int’l community enquires EC’s capacity to arrange fair polls
The International Community on Tuesday enquired about the Election Commission's (EC) capacity to arrange free and fair elections, said Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.
"They wanted to know whether we've the capacity to conduct fair elections," he said at a joint briefing after a meeting with foreign diplomats at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city.
Some 30 foreign diplomats, led by UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert Watkins, joined the meeting that lasted for nearly 90 minutes. The CEC and four election commissioners and EC Secretary were present.
Nurul Huda said they informed the international community that the EC has many laws to make elections fair and there are also many examples to arrange fair polls under the EC in the past.
"If all the parties join an election, it'll be free and fair. This time it'll also be possible to conduct free and fair election if all the parties join it," he said.
Huda said the international community is ready to provide EC with technical assistance for conducting election.
The Commission also sought financial assistance from the community to purchase iris and fingerprint machines, which would be used in the distribution of smart national identity cards, the CEC said.
He, however, said they had no talks over electronic voting machines (EVMs) at the meeting.
Turning to the delimitation of constituencies, he said the EC is mulling whether the constituencies can be re-demarcated on the basis of voter size instead of population size.
If the delimitation of constituencies is redrawn on the basis of population, the discrimination among the constituencies would increase.
At the briefing, Robert Watkins, also the UNDP Resident Representative, said they want to provide technical assistance to the Election Commission to arrange free and fair election.
Replying to a question, he said they had no discussion over 'election-time' government at the meeting as it is beyond their jurisdiction.
He said the EC has specific laws to arrange fair elections but participation of all political parties is essential to arrange a fair election.
Meanwhile, a UNDP press release said the Election Commission on Tuesday held an introductory and information-sharing meeting with members of the international community and shared their ideas on future elections.
The CEC Huda said, "The Election Commission presented today to the international community the status of preparations for elections and plans for the months ahead."
Robert Watkins said it was important for the international community to meet the members of the new Election Commission in person to learn about their planned activities for ongoing and future elections in the country, as well as the challenges that they face.
In the past 15 years, the UNDP in Bangladesh has been providing technical assistance to Bangladesh's Election Commission in the form of capacity building and institutional strengthening to assist the EC in delivering its mandated functions.
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