Foreign poll monitors eye return to Bangladesh

Dhaka, Feb 1: European and UN election monitors are preparing to return to Bangladesh, officials said today, weeks after they pulled out of the country due to pre-poll violence.

Hopes for a peaceful and credible parliamentary election in Bangladesh brightened yesterday after five widely criticised senior officials at the election commission quit.

Officials and analysts saw it as a positive step towards ending a long-running political crisis that forced caretaker authorities to postpone the election planned for late January.

They said the departure of the five, whose removal was a key demand of one of Bangladesh's main political groupings, paved the way for the crisis to be resolved soon.

The UN office in Dhaka said it was considering to resume assistance, while the European Commission office said an advance observation team would visit Dhaka this month to see whether a free and fair election could be held.

REUTERS

Related Stories

>