EU Delegation: A visit crucial to ensuring polls observers

The assessment of the EU exploratory mission, which will visit Bangladesh for two weeks starting July 9, could determine the international acceptability of the next parliamentary election, analysts have said.

The EU is sending the mission to observe the pre-polls atmosphere, and the response will determine whether it would send a team to observe the election. The initiative, the first of this kind with regard to the upcoming polls, in turn would inspire other foreign countries and entities to follow suit -- which would ultimately mean stronger election monitoring.

EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley said the six-member EU delegation will talk to all the stakeholders -- government, political parties, Election Commission, security officials, the civil society and media. It is an independent professional exercise and not a political EU mission.

"They [the delegates] like any observation mission, have to decide if it is feasible, useful and advisable to deploy a full EU observation mission," he told The Daily Star.

After the mission submits its report, the EU High Representative Josep Borrell will decide if the election observers will be coming to Bangladesh, he added.

M Humayun Kabir, president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), said the EU did not send observers for 2018 polls and the international community was highly critical of the last two elections. Therefore, this election and the coming of the international observers is very important.

He added that international acceptability of the election is extremely important for the country, given the economic and diplomatic challenges in the post-LDC Bangladesh, especially in the changing global geopolitical environment following the Russia-Ukraine war.

Kabir further said trade facilities like the EU's GSP Plus, once the GSP is over, is partly dependent on a free and fair election.

US State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet, during his visit to Dhaka this February, said the "erosion of democracy" limits its ability to cooperate with any country, including Bangladesh.

On May 24, the US declared a policy saying those involved in vote rigging and intimidation will be denied US visa. Earlier in 2021, the Biden Administration imposed sanctions on RAB and some of its officials, while it also did not invite Bangladesh to the Democracy Summit.

The US and EU are the major destinations for Bangladesh's exports that bring home much-needed foreign currencies.

Humayun Kabir also said the controversies centring the last two elections have had negative implications for Bangladesh as a democracy, as well as in terms of good governance.