Uncertainty looms over arrival of foreign poll observers

Hossen Sohel of DOT
The arrival of a large number of international poll observers to monitor the 11th parliamentary elections of Bangladesh is yet to be confirmed due to the home and foreign ministries’ apathy in giving them the required approval, diplomatic sources said, reports Prothom Alo.
The local observers were, on the other hand, earlier directed by the election commission (EC) secretary Helaluddin Ahmed to observe the voting “like a statue”.
In this context, there are questions about how actively the local and foreign observers will be able to carry out their responsibilities of monitoring the voting process.
Foreign diplomatic sources said a 32-member team of Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) is supposed to observe the elections on behalf of Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI).
NDI doubts whether all the observers will be able to come to Bangladesh since, until last night (Thursday), only six of the 32 ANFREL members were provided approval.
Officials of the foreign ministry and election commission secretariats declined to comment on the matter.
The home and foreign ministries take the final decisions on foreign observers following the EC’s request.
An NDI delegation, which came to Bangladesh earlier this month, told this correspondent that they could not finalise preparations to observe polls as they took the decision to come at the last moment.
That is why NDI delegated ANFREL to carry out the task quickly and within limited budget.
The NDI delegation held meetings with concerned persons of the government and requested them to cooperate with ANFREL.
On condition of anonymity, a consultant of the NDI told Prothom Alo on Wednesday that there is uncertainty over the arrival of all 32 members of ANFREL to Bangladesh.