It seems several Western nations, including the United States are competing in discrediting the forthcoming Bangladesh’s general election much before even the election schedules are announced by the Election Commission.
Recently, the European Union in a statement said it will not send election observation team while Nabila Massrali, Spokeswoman of the EU said, according to the evaluation by experts, it is apprehended that the election will not be of international standards.
She said this in reply to a question on the French TV channel France 24.
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 July 6 to 22. 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.
Replying to media, Nabila Massrali 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 US$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.
Meanwhile, the Department of State of United States today announced to take steps to impose visa restrictions on Bangladeshi individuals responsible for undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh, said a press statement by US state department spokesperson Matthew Millar on September 22, 2023.
“Today, the Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on Bangladeshi individuals responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh. These individuals include members of law enforcement, the ruling party, and the political opposition”, the US state department release said.
“These persons and members of their immediate family may be found ineligible for entry into the United States. Additional persons found to have been responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh may also be found ineligible for US visas under this policy in the future. This includes current and former Bangladeshi officials, members of opposition and ruling political parties, and members of law enforcement, the judiciary, and security services,” the press statement adds.
The state department release said the United States is committed to supporting free and fair elections in Bangladesh that are carried out in a peaceful manner.
“Our actions today reflect the continued commitment of the United States to supporting Bangladesh’s goal of peacefully holding free and fair national elections, and to support those seeking to advance democracy globally”, it added.
Earlier on 24 May, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced the new visa policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) (“3C”) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to support Bangladesh’s goal of holding free, fair, and peaceful national elections.
Meanwhile, Bryan Schiller, press attaché and spokesperson of the US Embassy in Dhaka replying questions from journalists said, “the US government started to closely monitor the situation here since the announcement of the new visa policy. We’ve imposed visa restrictions on law enforcement, the ruling party, and the political opposition members”.
Commenting on the latest announcement, State Minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam said the government is not worried about the US Visa restriction as Washington started imposing it on Bangladeshi individuals responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the country’s democratic election process.
“We have nothing to lose, we are not worried about it because we are not doing anything wrong”.
He, however, called the development “not a pleasing experience” but added “we have to go through it”.
Alam said Washington has informed Dhaka regarding their decision under the new US policy which US said was aimed to support Bangladesh’s goal of holding free, fair, and peaceful national elections.
Asked if Dhaka had approached the US to enforce the policy after the Bangladesh elections Alam replied in the negative saying Dhaka never approached Washington with any such request.
“Earlier, some political parties tried to establish that the (US) visa restriction will be imposed on only ruling political party, but the US today again made it clear that the new policy is applicable to both the ruling and opposition political parties”, he said.
Alam said the government expected that the US government would implement the new visa restriction policy after properly reviewing facts and figures in a fair way.
“If it appears that are facing troubles in carrying out our (government) works for imposition of visa restriction on any particular individual, Dhaka will discuss such kind of cases with Washington”, he said.
The state minister said the Washington gave Dhaka idea that how many individuals came under its visa restrictions and “what I can tell you that the number is small”.
The state minister said the government believed that members of BNP-Jamaat appeared more vulnerable to the US visa restriction as they were involved in acts to foil the next election.
On the other hand, he said, the government remained committed to hold a free fair and violence free election under the existing constitutional provisions.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Bangladesh people would not accept any move even taken from abroad to hamper the elections, reiterating her government’s commitment to hold next polls in a free and fair manner.
“Awami League will come to power again if the countrymen voted for it. But, the people will not accept any move even taken from abroad to hinder the election”, she told a press conference at Bangladesh Mission in New York City.
The prime minister said her party believes in the power of the people reposed in them in accordance with article 7 of the Constitution.
In case of any move to thwart elections, she said the people of Bangladesh will also impose restrictions on them who will take such initiative.
About fresh visa restrictions, the premier said that she hoped the visa restrictions will be applicable including the opposition in any move to thwart the election.
She said the next general elections will be held in a proper manner if the BNP alliance doesn’t carry out any arson attack likewise 2013-14 aimed at foiling the polls.
The premier expressed her hope that the country that has imposed visa restriction will consider the issue from both sides or neutrally.
“I have nothing to say, if the Awami League is only targeted. But the Awami League doesn’t come to power depending on anyone’s strength. I assume power through the power of the people and their votes”, she said.
Sheikh Hasina, also President of the AL said that they have been working for the welfare of the people.
Ultimate face of Western nation’s free and fair election
First of all, we need to assess the statement of Nabila Massrali, Spokeswoman of the EU who said, “according to the evaluation by experts, it is apprehended that the election will not be of international standards”. In this case, we can definitely ask her – what is the definition of “international standard”? Does she see election in the United States where allegations of mass-rigging were raised in 2016 and 2020 by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? Or is she referring to the election in Nigeria where in the name of saving democracy, US President Joe Biden and his team members at the State Department have jointly repeated an American-style doctored election in Nigeria, and succeeded in snatching victory in favor of their own man – Bola A Tinubu (Bola Ahmed Tinubu)?
In fact, there is nothing called “international standard” in the vocabulary of democracy, as every country sets it own code of democracy and election. It is extremely unfortunate that Western nations are trying to meddle into domestic issues of particularly countries in the Global South, which actually is part of their agenda of extending hegemony and extracting multiple benefits.
Of course, the ruling Awami League should be held responsible for the growing propaganda centering Bangladesh’s forthcoming election as it has miserably failed in countering such propaganda. Instead of focusing on effectively countering each and every propaganda, some “pundits” of the ruling party were busy in taking refuge under the garb of ghostwriters and getting some articles published in the local media as well as several unknown or little-known websites – including EU Reporter. This project has lately nosedived and fallen flat identities of those ghostwriters were exposed by AFP. By that time, the amounts spent in such ridiculous effort has already gone into vein as almost all of those contents written by the ghostwriters have been deleted by local newspapers and foreign websites. Meanwhile, opponents of the ruling party have succeeded in getting biased propaganda content published in leading newspapers like The New York Times and few more well-known newspapers.
Should the ruling Awami League put due attention to the adverse propaganda at least a year ago – there might not be consequences like US visa policy or latest statement of the EU spokesperson. It is well-assumed, political rivals of the ruling party shall onwards further intensify media offensives targeting ruling Awami League and prominent figures in the government with the ulterior agenda of getting international sanctions (including sanction under Global Magnitsky Act) on dozens of leaders of the ruling party as well as civil-military officials. And once again – most possibly, Awami League will repeat the same blunder.
