The United States keeps reserved its observation about Sunday’s general elections in Bangladesh saying that it will be monitoring the situation and engaging as necessary.
Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson of the US state department, said in Washington on Thursday that they would not also comment on the election results where candidates for more than a half of the parliamentary seats had been declared elected unopposed as opposition BNP boycotted the polls.
Asked if she recognises the election results, she said ‘I don’t want to get ahead of what we’ll
say in response to the election results. As I’ve been clear, they haven’t taken steps to hold free, fair, and credible elections, so clearly that’s not a good sign. But I don’t want to prejudge the outcome or what we’ll say afterwards.’
Marie only iterated that they were not deploying observers for this election. They are disappointed that the major political parties have not yet reached a consensus on a way to hold free, fair, and credible elections. ‘Obviously, that’s what we’re encouraging and we will keep monitoring the situation and engaging as necessary,’ she added.
The state department official said that they believed that it is even more urgent than ever for the major parties to redouble their efforts to engage in constructive dialogue. They need to find
a way forward, to hold free and fair elections that are credible and ‘violence is not acceptable — never acceptable — because it subverts the democratic process.’
Asked about her comment on the ‘house arrest’ of the leader of the opposition in the parliament, Khaleda Zia, she said that she did not have anything on that.
-With New Age input
