EU's Election Exploratory Mission meets diplomats on first day
The EU delegation is scheduled to meet with a team of the Bangladesh Awami League on Monday afternoon and hold a series of meetings with major political parties and civil society actors.
The European Union's six-member Election Exploratory Mission has started its activities after arriving in Dhaka early Sunday to survey the atmosphere ahead of the next national election.
On the first day of its two-week visit, the delegation had a meeting with the ambassadors of some countries at the Gulshan residence of Charles Whiteley, the EU Ambassador in Dhaka, according to diplomatic sources.
At the meeting, the ambassadors and representatives from France, Italy, Norway, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and some other countries were present.
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The EU delegation is scheduled to meet with a team of the Bangladesh Awami League on Monday afternoon and hold a series of meetings with major political parties and civil society actors.
Shammi Ahmed, international affairs secretary of Awami League said that a meeting would be held between the EU delegation and the ruling party's international affairs sub-committee on Monday afternoon at the residence of EU ambassador in Dhaka.
Besides, the team will meet the party's General Secretary Obaidul Quader on 15 July.
The date and agenda of the meeting between the EU team and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will be finalised this week, BNP's Organising Secretary Shama Obaid told TBS. In the meeting, the party will explain if the prevailing situation is conducive to fair elections.
"The visiting delegation is a pre-assessment team. Based on its report, the EU will decide whether it will send election observers to Bangladesh," she said.
The team is scheduled to hold a meeting with the Election Commission on 11 July morning, according to commission sources.
Chelleri Riccardo, who has vast professional experience in the electoral processes covering observation, supervision and technical assistance, is leading the delegation, now in Dhaka at the invitation of the Election Commission of Bangladesh.
According to diplomatic sources in Dhaka and Brussels, the EU's Election Exploratory Mission takes deep interests in major political parties including the Bangladesh National Party (BNP).
In recent past, top leaders of major political parties in Bangladesh in a series of meetings with the EU delegation in Dhaka showed positive signal to the visit of the EU's election exploratory delegation, they said.
The task of this mission will be to assess the scope, planning, budget, logistics and security of the main election observation mission, Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, Director General (Additional Charge) of Public Diplomacy Wing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters at the weekly briefing on Thursday.
The delegation, which will be visiting Bangladesh till 23 July, includes Dimitra Ioannou, Alves Chritina Dos Ramos, Miller Ian James, Chamagne Christopher and Marie-Helene Enderlin.
The EU delegation in Dhaka has not made public the schedules of the mission's activities in Dhaka, a diplomatic source said.
Based on the information received from the fact-finding mission, the European Union will take a final decision on sending a full-fledged Election Observation Mission before the next national elections.
The main objective of the visiting mission is to assess the "advisability, usefulness and feasibility" of a possible EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to the EU Mission in Dhaka.
