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by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
October 23, 2008
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Much anticipated general election is scheduled to be held on December 18, 2008 as per the very latest commitment made by the millitary controlled interim government. According to various sources, first batch of the US election observers is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka in the first week of November as Washington has decided to dispatch 120 poll observers on a long-term mission for the next general elections.
US ambassador in Dhaka James F Moriarty on Wednesday also said the conditions were going to be in place for holding free, fair and credible elections.
He said this to journalists after he had called on the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, at the latter's office and discussed a wide range of issues relating to trade and politics.
Responding to a query whether holding the elections under the state of emergency would make any difference in decision-making about sending the election observers, Moriarty said, 'No, no. we've made the commitment. We think we need to get the people out here and that's going to happen. They are going to be on their way.'
Touching on the issue whether the US has changed its position on the elections under emergency or without emergency, Moriarty said Bangladeshis should determine how the elections could be free and fair.
'Half a million Bangladeshi people live in the United States and half of them support BNP and another half Awami League. It is important that they should be assured that the elections are going to be credible,' the top US diplomat in Dhaka said.
When Iftekhar was asked whether Moriarty had raised the issue of the state of emergency during discussion, the adviser said they had time and again stated that it was an internal matter of Bangladesh and the Bangladeshis would have to figure it out and that they knew it very well.
Referring to Chief Adviser's commitment that any impediments on the way of free and fair elections would be removed, Iftekhar said, 'After all, we are moving towards the election nicely. If there could be nice elections in America, why not in Bangladesh?'
The ambassador and the foreign adviser of the caretaker government also discussed the upcoming presidential elections in the USA.
Iftekhar told him that the people in Bangladesh have a deep interest in the US elections and are following it very closely.
The adviser assured the ambassador that Bangladesh would look forward to working closely together no matter whoever of the two contenders became the next US president.
The current global financial turmoil also came up for discussion, and they hoped that the current difficulties in the financial world would not have long-term impact on the Bangladesh-US trade relations.
He said the people of Bangladesh are anxiously waiting to see the results of the US elections, which is important for the world as well as the Bangladesh-US ties.
But, whatever the may may be with the news of arrival of Election monitoring team from United States, as well government's continuous commitment in holding the election, there are several signs from local and international scenerios that election in 2008 is really a mission impossible for many reasons. One of the reasons is, the present millitary controlled interim government's several iniatives are alread questioned as well it has failed to basically give anything good to the nation except the reign of terror for almost two years. The government has terribly failed to address the power shortage issue and during their tenure they could not even add one kilowatt of electricity in the National Grid Line. They failed to address the food crisis. They have failed to combat Islamist millitancy. They have failed to combat corruption. Even during this government a number of notorious terrorists were released from prison for reason unknown.
There are signs of rise of Islamist millitancy in the country under the present regime. According to analysts, the present government is trying to play 'Islamist Card' or 'Millitancy Card' to untimately convince the international community that election by December won't be good for the domestic, regional or international security. With this excuse, the government will try to do anything to shift the election date to atleast somewhere in 2009. But, many analysts continue to believe that the present government has no real intention of holding the election in near future or even within 2009.
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