Diplomats observe polls but without local staff
Foreign diplomats visited different polling centres during yesterday’s Dhaka city polls without their local staffers, following a government directive not to include Bangladeshi employees of their missions in election observer teams.
The Daily Star could confirm that envoys of the US, the UK, the European Union, Canada, and Japan went to polling centres in various parts of the city.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller visited Rampura Ekramunnesa High School, Shaheed Monu Miah Government High School in Tejgaon, and Banani Bidyaniketan School and College centres.
He spent around 15 minutes at Rampura Ekramunnesa High School and observed the voting process. The envoy then went to Shaheed Monu Miah Government High School and stood on the school playground for a while.
“This is a beautiful day,” the ambassador said, looking around and up in the sky, reports UNB.
He also inquired about the school and when it was established. When he saw 72-year-old Mohammed Shahjalal was proceeding towards the polling centre with the support of his relatives, the diplomat suggested a television journalist that the moment be captured.
“The ambassador did not talk to any media as per the Election Commission’s regulations,” said a diplomatic source.
British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson visited several polling centres, including Banani Bidyaniketan School and College and Azimpur Girls School and College. He also refrained from talking to any media.
Besides the US and the UK diplomats, those from the foreign missions of Canada, Japan, and the European Union visited various stations.
An official of an embassy in Bangladesh said they were in serious confusion until the last moment if they would include their Bangladeshi employees in the election observer teams.
“There was a meeting today [yesterday] morning and it was decided that local staffers would not be kept with the observer teams,” the official told The Daily Star.
“There was dissatisfaction over the issue, but they [diplomats] did not express it,” he said, wishing anonymity.
The EC approved the names of 74 officials -- 46 foreigners and 28 Bangladeshis -- from 10 foreign missions in Dhaka for inclusion in foreign observer teams.
The officials are from missions of the US, the UK, the European Union, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Australia, and Canada.
On Thursday, the foreign ministry wrote to the missions in Dhaka, saying it would be highly appreciated if they do not include their local employees, who are Bangladeshis, in teams of foreign observers.
The ministry said it was a violation of electoral code of conduct to include the local employees in the international observer teams.
As the confusion ran wild, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Friday evening said Bangladeshis working at foreign missions in Dhaka and international organisations would be able to work as local observers, not as foreign observers, in the elections to Dhaka south and north city corporations.
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