Staff correspondent :

A foreign poll observer team comprising distinguished persons from countries like the United States and Japan today negated demand for a polls time caretaker government and expressed their confidence on the Election Commission (EC) capacity to conduct a fair and credible election.

“We determine that the calls for independent caretaker government will be ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’ under the current situation, said US political analyst Terry L Isley, a member of the visiting team, emerging from a meeting with the EC.

He added: “As the representative of delegation of observers we have determined that your election commission is authorized by the constitution and independent and so can be fair in the administration of the election”.

This was the second foreign polls observer team visiting Bangladesh, which is being led by Ireland born senior political journalist Nick Paul, currently covering European Union political affairs.

“Your constitution does not allow a caretaker government. You will have to change your constitution to do that,” Isley said adding “even if it is a good idea, even if they wanted to it, they could not do it because there is no legal framework to do so”.

He said the delegation reviewed the possibilities of the caretaker government going back and forth many times to see if this was possible and reached a conclusion that “right now it is not possible”.

Isley said he was not representing the US government as an observer but being so US secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States wanted to see the upcoming elections to be fair and credible and the ruling Awami League to remain accountable.

“So the United States in particular is watching to make sure that happens” he said adding the US administration was right in their view but expressed his confidence the government and commission and others concerned could discharge their tasks in appropriate manner.

The others who comprised the delegation in meeting the Commission were Japanese social activist Yusuki Sugu and Chinese political analyst Andy Lin.

During the visit, the delegation participated in a civil dialogue on the assessment of the pre-election situation and political environment on July 29.
Earlier, on February 24, the first team of international election observers from Germany, Nepal, India and Bhutan visited Bangladesh and exchanged views with some police parties, the Election Commission and representatives of civil society.

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