The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The European Commission will take decision on sending election-observer mission to Bangladesh considering the relaxation of the emergency rules as normally the EC does not observe elections where the state of emergency remains in place.

The remarks were made to reporters by EC Head of the Delegation Ambassador Stefan Frowein after holding an hour-long meeting with Foreign Affairs Advisor Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at the Foreign Ministry.

Frowein, who led an eight-member delegation of the EU countries' envoys, said the European Commissioner for External Affairs would take the final decision about sending the election-observation mission to Dhaka by the end of September analyzing the given situation.

"That's normally the case," he said when asked whether the EC does not send its observation mission to an emergency-bound country.

Asked what would be the EC's decision about Bangladesh, Frowein said, "We'll have to see how the relaxation goes."

However, he said, it's the EU Commissioner to take the final decision by end of September.

In June last, an Exploratory Mission of the European Commission visited Dhaka and submitted its report on the pre-election situation to the EC Commissioner.

Asked whether they are confident about the holding of the general election in the third week of December according to the roadmap, Frowein said the Election Commission would announce the date for the elections and they are confident since it is still on in December.

Italian Ambassador Ms Itala Maria Marta Occi, Netherlands Ambassador Ms Bea Ten Tusscher, French CDA Patrick Branco Ruivo, Swedish CDA Ola Hallgren, German CDA Rolf Dieter Reinhard, Danish CDA Jan Moller Hansen, UK Head of Political Affairs Simon Lever and Arturo Manuel Perez Martinez were on the delegation.

Later, Iftekhar told the reporters that the discussions ranged from development cooperation to the preparations for the elections.

He said European support to the electoral process also featured in the discussions. The possibility of the deployment of a Mission to Bangladesh to observe the elections in December was also discussed.

Iftekhar said the European Commission would take a decision in this regard, possibly by the end of September.