M Mushfiqul Fazal from UN
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “it is obvious that the elections were not perfect”.
The UN Chief Came up with the remark in response to a query regarding his observations on the general elections in Bangladesh during a press conference held at UN headquarters in New York yesterday.
He called upon the stakeholders in Bangladeshi political sphere to engage in meaningful dialogues for a positive outcome.
At the briefing UN Correspondent M Mushfiqul Fazal asked, “As you know, Bangladesh national election was held 30 December with voting rigging, intimidation, crackdown on opposition. And opposition party rejected that polls… even the international observer, they were not welcome in Bangladesh, and they did not… Bangladesh Government did not allow even US State Department organized 17 organizations to observe the election. So, what is your observation on Bangladesh election? And are you willing to send any envoy or any special team to investigate the whole thing and to restore democracy in Bangladesh?”
In reply the UN Secretary-General said, “Now, it is obvious that the elections were not perfect, and we encourage the different areas of the Bangladeshi political sphere to engage in meaningful forms of dialogue in order for the political life in Bangladesh to be as positive as possible.”
“Bangladesh is a very important partner for the United Nations in relation to the Rohingya refugees,” he said, adding “we are extremely grateful to Bangladesh for its generosity in hosting so many Rohingya refugees in the extremely difficult circumstances that exist and taking into account the problems and the difficulties of the Bangladeshi development in itself.”
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