Normal democratic life to be restored thru' Dec 29 polls

Head of the visiting Commonwealth election observer group Cassam Uteem speaks at a press briefing in the city yesterday. On his left is Dame Jennifer Smith and on his right are Dr Sharman Stone and BB Tandon. Photo: STAR

Head of the visiting Commonwealth election observer group Cassam Uteem yesterday hoped that normal democratic life would be restored in Bangladesh through December 29 elections.
Democracy and good governance are the core Commonwealth principles and the restoration of representative democracy in Bangladesh is as important to the Commonwealth as it is to the people of Bangladesh, he said at a press briefing in the city.
"This team will consider all the factors impinging on the credibility of the electoral process as a whole, and assess whether the elections have been conducted according to the standards for democratic elections," Cassam, also a former president of Mauritius, said in a written statement.
The team would also consider the transparency of the process, whether the state apparatus and state media remained impartial and whether candidates are free to campaign and voters' will is respected, he added.
The poll observers would cover as many areas as possible in liaison with other local and international observers, he said. "We are going to deploy observers in two days."
"We have met the Election Commission (EC) officials who assured us of a good peaceful election. They told us that everything has been done rightly, everything is on target," Cassam said, adding that his team would verify the assurance on the ground.
Team members Isham Mohamed, head of Transparency Maldives, Ahmed Mehboob of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Gambia's former opposition leader Halifa Sallah, Australian shadow minister for citizenship and immigration Dr Sharman Stone, Canadian election expert Judith Thompson, Sasha Mohammed, a journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, former chief election commissioner of India BB Tandon and Dame Jennifer Smith, an MP of Bermuda, were present at the press briefing.