UN will send team to assess Bangladesh polls

BANGLADESH: A United Nations monitoring team will arrive in Bangladesh in the coming weeks to assess the nation’s parliamentary elections due in December, the U.N. chief said.

On Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Bangladesh, which has been under emergency rule since January last year, to take all steps to ensure free and fair elections on Dec. 18.

“I have informed the government and the political parties that the U.N. will dispatch a small team of highly capable and prominent individuals who will visit in the coming weeks to assess the conduct of the election and report to me,” he told a Sunday news conference in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, after meeting President Iajuddin Ahmed, interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmed and other political leaders.

“It is in the world’s and your best interest to see Bangladesh achieve its full potential for democratic development through free and credible elections,” Ban said.

In a televised address Sunday, Bangladesh’s Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda said troops would be deployed nationwide to keep order on election day. He did not mention the state of emergency.

The military-backed interim government imposed the emergency after weeks of deadly rioting between supporters of rival political parties over electoral reform.

The main political parties have voiced concerns that the election might not be free and fair if the state of emergency - which curtails many rights including public gatherings by political parties - is not lifted before polls.

The government has not said if it plans to lift or relax those restrictions ahead of the poll.

Dhaka, Monday, AP