UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and thanked her for extending cooperation to Oscar Fernandez Taranco to mediate talks between the two major parties. He hoped that Bangladesh’s general elections will be inclusive and held in a free and fair atmosphere.Wednesday’s phone call came at a time when UN emissary Oscar Fernández-Taranco was in Dhaka brokering talks between the two leading political alliances to clear the deadlock over polls.
Hasina’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said Ban called up Hasina at around 4:45pm on Wednesday.
“I hope the election will be held as per the Constitution and democracy of the country will be strengthened,” Azad quoted him as saying.
The UN chief had sent his special envoy, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Fernández-Taranco, to get the two feuding alliances to sit for a dialogue.
Leaders of the ruling Awami League and Opposition BNP sat and talked on two occasions last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Political analysts fear Bangladesh might be heading towards a ‘crisis’ from the conflicts arising from the contradictory positions of the Awami League and BNP-led coalitions over the polls-time dispensation.
The Awami League has clearly stated that the next national election will be held under the Sheikh Hasina-led ‘multi-party’ government as per the Constitution.
The Opposition says polls under the incumbent government will not be free and fair. It has been agitating for a non-party government’s supervision in the national polls.
UN chief Ban was optimistic that dialogue initiated between the two parties would continue. He expressed concerns at the loss of lives during the Opposition-enforced recent shutdowns and blockades.
He urged the Prime Minister to bring an end to violence in Bangladesh. Ban had spoken to Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia in August in a bid to get a dialogue started between Bangladesh’s two leading political coalitions. – bdnews24.com
