Staff correspondent :

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal today said the visiting United States (US) pre-election observation mission wanted to know the work plan of the Election Commission (EC) and the government during the upcoming 12th parliamentary elections.

“The American pre-assessment team asked about our roles, responsibilities, activities and the EC’s coordination with the government. We informed them about the roles of the EC, the government and everything about the coordination of the EC with the government (during polls),” he said.

The CEC said these while talking to the journalists after a meeting with the pre-election monitoring delegation from the United States at the Nirbachan Bhaban in city’s Agargaon area.

The CEC said the US pre-election observation team has mainly come to pre-assess Bangladesh. Their main focus is to ensure holding an election in a fair and free manner. They want a participatory and peaceful election, he added.

Awal said the EC has informed everything they wanted to know.

After observing the whole matter, they will take their decisions, including the one on sending observers, he said, adding that it is up to them what they will decide when they would return home.

The visiting US delegation includes the International Republican Institute’s (IRI’s) Bonnie Glick, Jamil Jaffer and Johanna Kao and representatives from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Maria Chin Abdullah and Manpreet Singh Anand.

They reached Dhaka on Saturday and will stay in Bangladesh until Oct 13 to assess the pre-election situation.

They have already held meetings with Awami League (AL), Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jatiya Party.

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