United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) in Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis has said the timing of Bangladesh's upcoming national election will be determined by the interim government and the political parties.
"It's really a political party, government decision. We are not touching on timelines or that's really a decision of the government and political parties have to make," she told reporters after holding a meeting with Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin at the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka on Tuesday (January 14).
During the meeting, the UNRC led a delegation of the UNDP's needs assessment mission, visiting Bangladesh from New York following a request by the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) for UN technical support to conduct the next general polls.
Lewis said the needs assessment team is on a mission in Bangladesh at the request of the Bangladesh Election Commission, which wrote to the UN seeking technical support for the upcoming elections.
She said that the United Nations is willing to extend its support for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. "The UN is interested in providing all technical and physical support to achieve this goal," she added.
The UNDP needs assessment mission began its work this morning with a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, four election commissioners, and EC officials.
The team will stay in Bangladesh for 10 days and meet with various stakeholders, including political parties, civil society, and others involved with the election process.
When asked which political parties the mission will meet, Lewis said, "As many as possible...they (the needs assessment mission) will meet every political party we can think of in Bangladesh."
The UN envoy said her colleagues will assess what makes sense in terms of what the UN can offer, as the Election Commission has requested technical support for the national election, not local government elections.
The needs assessment mission is examining areas where the UN can provide support and assessing the overall election environment.
During their meeting at the Election Commission earlier in the day, the EC presented a list of support requests to the UN team, she mentioned.
Lewis informed that the assessment team will travel to Chattogram on Wednesday and hold various meetings with stakeholders in the coming days, culminating in a feedback session with the Election Commission.
After returning from Chattogram, the assessment team will engage with civil society, academia, political parties, and other stakeholders involved in the election process.
"The (needs assessment) mission will finish within 10 days and will come back here to present it before the EC," she said.
Based on the discussions with stakeholders, the mission will make recommendations to the Election Commission on the technical support the UN could provide, the UNRC explained.
She said the UNDP might assist with a wide range of issues, including capacity development, technology support, and addressing misinformation and disinformation.
Noting that door-to-door work to update the voter list is set to begin, she observed that some technologies might be required to support this effort.
Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, while addressing a press conference at Gulshan in Dhaka on Tuesday urged the interim government to hold the next general election by August this year for the greater interest of the nation.
Noble Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus took charge of the country on August 8 against the backdrop of the student-led July-August mass uprising that led to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led autocratic regime.
Nearly a month ago, in his address to the nation, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said that the 13th parliamentary election will either be held at the end of 2025 or in early 2026.
However, the BNP and other political parties have rejected the timeframe and started mounting pressure on the incumbent management to hold the national election as early as possible.
Eventually, BNP leader Fakhrul on Tuesday said that there is no alternative but to hold the national election by the middle of this year.
He also urged the interim government, Election Commission and all political parties to hold talks about holding the next general election by July-August this year for the greater interest of the nation.
