M Mushfiqul Fazal, State Department correspondent
The US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said political violence has no place in democratic elections.
“We encourage the Government of Bangladesh to investigate any reports of violence thoroughly, transparently, and impartially, and to hold the perpetrators of violence to account,” he said at a briefing on Monday while responding to a question about the attack on independent candidate Ashraful Hossain in the Dhaka-17 by-poll in Bangladesh.
Miller said, “And I would say, as we have said before, that we would expect the Government of Bangladesh to hold free and fair elections, and we continue to monitor it closely.”
Hero Alam was attacked amid heavy police presence, allegedly by the supporters of ruling Awami League candidate Muhammad Ali Arafat, as he visited the Banani Bidyaniketan School and College polling station around 4:00pm.
In the briefing, State Department correspondent M Mushfiqul Fazal asked “After returning back Under Secretary Zeya, Bangladesh regime is back to attack the opposition party. And just we saw yesterday, there was an election – by-election, though the main opposition boycotted because of that, even an independent candidate came under attack, he’s in hospital now and less than 10 percent of the vote casted. And so how could you believe that Prime Minister Hasina will ensure a free, fair election as 2014 and 2018 election was not free, fair, and still the by-election is not free and fair, and candidates, like this are under attack? So what is your position on that? Are you following this?”
In reply, Miller said, “I would say that this type of political violence has no place in democratic elections. We encourage the government of Bangladesh to investigate any reports of violence thoroughly, transparently and impartially, and to hold the perpetrators of violence to account. And I would say, as we have said before, that we would expect the government of Bangladesh to hold free and fair elections, and we continue to monitor it closely.”
In another question this correspondent asked “Just Wednesday night in New York, one of the opposition activists protested in front of the ruling visiting Awami League party MP. And just after a few hours, his family got under attack in Bangladesh. And the ruling party put it in Facebook live that they are attacking those who are raising voices outside the country, they are attacking their home. So if someone is talking from the US or protesting or arguing with the government party, they are not safe in their home country. So what is your view on that?”
In reply, Miller said, “I would just say, again, that type of violence that you mentioned has no place in democratic elections.”
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