12th Parliament Election: EC in trouble over observers

The 12th National Election will be held in the first of next January. The Election Commission (EC) is working to complete all preparations step by step.

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has announced that it would not send a full-fledged observer team for the upcoming national election in Bangladesh. Besides, EC is also worried about whether local and foreign registered organizations will perform their duties as observers in the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, EC has started contacts with various countries to find alternatives to the European Union (EU) observer team and to increase the number of observers.

EC will soon issue a notification to increase the number of observers in the upcoming parliamentary election.

According to sources, if any local local organization wants to observe elections, they are to get registration from EC.  It invited applications for registration ahead of the 12th parliamentary election, and the time ended on February 2. EC has selected 68 local and foreign organizations after scrutinizing 210 applications.

The number of observation organizations is much less than the previous national election. The election commissioners have already decided to issue a circular for applications very soon.

Election Commissioner Md. Ahsan Habib Khan said, “We are always sincere about a free, fair and acceptable election. For this reason, we want neutral observers who will monitor the election. We want a significant number of observers. But this time the number of registered local observer organizations is less than before. Therefore, the commission feels that this number needs to be increased”.