The US has once again urged the major political parties of Bangladesh
to start a dialogue to be able to hold the polls and end violence.
The State Department’s deputy spokesperson Marie Harf on Friday (Dec
6) said that the political parties must find a way to hold free, fair
and credible elections, which ‘reflects the will of Bangladeshi
people’.
“We believe it is now even more urgent for the major political parties
to engage immediately in constructive dialogue,” Harf said during the
State Department’s daily press briefing.
The ongoing violence must stop at once, said the state department
official replying a query from the media.
“Violence of any nature – which I know we’ve seen in Bangladesh – by
any of the participants in the political process is not part of the
democratic process. It’s not acceptable, it must stop immediately.”
Members of the European People’s Party (EEP) group of the European
Union have made similar appeals a day before at a hearing on
Bangladesh in Brussels.
The US has repeatedly called for a dialogue between the two major
political alliances to work out a mutually acceptable way to hold the
polls in a free and fair manner.
The EU has also done the same.
Realising that the crisis in Bangladesh, with the deadly spiral of
violence, might affect regional stability, the UN has also pushed hard
to mediate a settlement between the battling political platforms.
UN assistant secretary general Oscar Fernandez Taranco is now on his
second visit to Bangladesh this year, saying his brief from his boss
Ban Ki-moon is to find a way to a consensus on how to hold the
parliament elections peacefully and in an inclusive manner. –
bdnews24.com
