Sending EU poll observers depends on EPR relaxation

The European Commission's decision on sending election observers to Bangladesh depends on relaxation of the emergency rules since the EC usually does not observe elections where the state of emergency remains in place.
Ambassador Stefan Frowein, head of the delegation of the EU countries' envoys, made the remarks while talking to the reporters after an hour-long meeting with Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at the foreign ministry yesterday.
Frowein said the European Commissioner for External Affairs will take the final decision about sending the election-observation mission to Dhaka by the end of September analysing the given situation.
In June last, an Exploratory Mission of the European Commission visited Dhaka and submitted its report on the pre-election situation to the EC Commissioner.
Asked whether they are confident about the holding of the general elections in the third week of December according to the roadmap, Frowein said the Election Commission will announce the election date and they are confident since it is still on in December.
Italian Ambassador Ms Itala Maria Marta Occi, Netherlands Ambassador Ms Bea Ten Tusscher, French CDA Patrick Branco Ruivo, Swedish CDA Ola Hallgren, German CDA Rolf Dieter Reinhard, Danish CDA Jan Moller Hansen, UK Head of Political Affairs Simon Lever and Arturo Manuel Perez Martinez were in the team.
Later, Iftekhar told the reporters that the discussion ranged from development cooperation to the preparations for the elections.
He said European support to the electoral process also featured in the discussion. The possibility of the deployment of a mission in Bangladesh to observe the election in December was also discussed.
Iftekhar said the European Commission will take a decision in this regard, possibly by the end of September.