The United States would like to see a free and fair election in
Bangladesh with all parties taking part, visiting Congressman Steve
Chabot has said.
He also expressed the hope that bilateral relations between the US
and Bangladesh would grow stronger.
Chabot, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the
Pacific, met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office on Wednesday.
The US leader arrived in capital Dhaka on a two-day visit on Tuesday.
Hasina gave Chabot an idea of the fairness of elections held under her
government, saying that many ruling party-backed contestants had lost
in about 5,500 multi-level polls, her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad
told the press.
The fairness of the polls held under her government was beyond a shred
of doubt, she told the Congressman.
Hasina cited zero-casualty polls to stress her government’s
even-handed electoral management, contrasting it with over 200 deaths
in various elections under the BNP-led four-party alliance regime.
She referred to her telephonic conversation with the Leader of the
Opposition, Khaleda Zia, inviting her to a dialogue, a conciliatory
gesture the latter unceremoniously spurned.
Hasina said the Election Commission functioned independently without
the government breathing down in it.
She also stressed her government’s determination to keep terrorism at
bay and ensure peace in the region.
She alleged the BNP government earlier had done little to curb the
spread of terrorism.
Her government, the PM said, was working tirelessly to improve
people’s lives, adding that the judiciary was free of executive
meddling.
Chabot is in Bangladesh at a time when the country is experiencing
volatile politics marked by prolonged and violent opposition strikes
for a neutral caretaker government to oversee the 10th parliamentary
election.
The ruling Awami League, headed by Hasina, is strongly against letting
unelected people hold poll-time reigns, favouring an all-party,
interim Cabinet to be in charge at the time of the election.
Chabot is in Bangladesh when US Ambassador Dan Mozena is away home.
Mozena has been active in meeting rival leaders, apparently to mediate
a solution.
But Chabot said the US would not tell Bangladesh what to do in the
current political situation.-bdnews24.com
