700 foreign observers to watch polls
As many as 700 foreign observers from different countries and international organisations and 74 foreign journalists will monitor today's parliamentary polls across the country, according to the data of Election Commission (EC).
Foreign observer teams include Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), European Union (EU), International Republican Institute (IRI), ANFREL-BD, EOJ, National Democratic Institute (NDI), EU Election Observation Mission, Commonwealth, Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership, Asia Foundation (SAARC), British High Commission, US Embassy, Japan, Indian High Commission, Swedish Embassy, Nepal, German Embassy and the USAID.
EU Election Observation Mission has sent the largest team with 181 members followed by 88 of ANFREL, 83 of IRI, 60 of NDI, 26 of USAID, 20 of the British High Commission and 16 of Commonwealth.
Most of the observation teams have opened temporary offices at different five-star hotels and many observers have already gone to different districts ahead of the election.
European Parliament delegation, UN observer team, Commonwealth and Japanese delegations opened their observation booth at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel.
According to the hotel management, 50 rooms of Sonargaon have already been booked for accommodation and offices of different delegations.
Press Information Department (PID) of the Ministry of Information opened its central monitoring office at the hotel offering opportunities of using Internet and International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) calls for the foreign journalists.
IRI has opened its office at Radisson Water Garden Hotel while EU Election Observation Mission at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, said the hotel management.
Among the foreign observers, NDI will publish its election monitoring report on December 30 followed by European Union Mission and Commonwealth Observer Group on December 31 and the team from the United Nations (UN) secretary general's office on January 2.
According to the EC, 74 foreign journalists from different media include BBC World Service, Voice of America, Reuters, AFP, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, Xinhua News Agency, Radio France, France 24, Spanish News Agency, Deutsche Welle, NDTV and Kyodo News of Japan.
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