EU not seeing possibility of an international standard election

The European Union (EU) has decided not to send an election observation team to Bangladesh as, according to the evaluation by experts, it is apprehended that the election will not be of international standards.

The European Commission spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy Nabila Massrali said this in reply to a question on the French TV channel France 24. She gave the same answer to Prothom Alo in a written reply.

In the letter send to the chief election commissioner from the EU ambassador in Dhaka, Charles Whiteley, however, fund constraints had been mentioned as one of the reasons for not sending an election observation team.

When Nabila Massrali was asked whether budget constraints had led to this decision, she replied that the decision had been taken on the basis of the opinion of the EU investigating team and independent experts.

Nabila Massrali went on to say, EU sent an independent inquiry mission to Bangladesh. The mission was in Bangladesh from 6 to 22 July. The task of the mission was to independently and from a strategic angle, collect objective information and to evaluate how effective, possible and fruitful it would be or EU to send an election observation mission to observe the election in which Bangladesh has pledged to adhere to international standards.

The European Commission spokesperson, mentioning that there had been four independent experts in the EU investigating mission, said that they had had detailed discussions with Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, the election conducting institution, the judiciary, representatives of political parties, media representatives, civil society the security forces, and the international community. After that, they came to the conclusion that the EU election observation mission would not be able to fulfill its objectives.

Referring to a comment by Bangladesh’s election commission secretary Md Jahangir, the European Commission spokesperson was asked specifically if EU budget constraints were a reason for this decision. She said budget constraints were a reason.

France 24 journalist Md Arifullah in a tweet (on X previously known as Twitter), said that the commission spokesperson had told him that the European External Action Service (EEAS) had taken that independent report into consideration.

When Prothom Alo contacted the EU spokesperson’s office, Nabila Massrali gave the same reply. She said that European Commission was now considering what alternatives there could be to remain connected to the election process, subject to the wishes of the Bangladesh government and the election commission.

In the letter sent to the election commission by the EU ambassador in Dhaka, Charles Whiteley, it had been said that it was not clear at the moment whether the required criteria would be met or not during the national election in Bangladesh and that the EU foreign affairs commissioner Josep Borrell had taken the decision not to send a full-fledged election observation team to the national elections in Bangladesh in consideration of the budget allocated for election observation in 2023-24 by EU.

Just a day earlier, the European Commission had announced that the USD 5 million allocation to support the Zimbabwe election commission had been cancelled. That is why some quarters are surprised at the mention of budget constraints.