UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh Awami League appreciates the outpouring of international support for the country’s upcoming national elections, the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader said in a letter to Donald Lu, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US Department of State and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas, that also ruled out any possibility of dialogue.
In the letter dated November 15, 2023, Quader expressed gratitude to Lu and US Ambassador Peter Haas on behalf of Awami League for their support and assistance in ensuring a free, fair, and violence-free national parliamentary election.
AL expressed its commitment to upholding the democratic process and the sacred right of people to vote. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the President of AL, the current government in Bangladesh has implemented various reforms to make the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) an independent organization, including the introduction of photo-based voter ID cards, transparent ballot boxes, and a law for the appointment of election commissioners, Quader said in the letter.
The Bangladesh Election Commission has already announced the schedule for the 12th national parliamentary election, set to take place on January 7, 2024, with the last date for submission of nominations being November 30, 2023. AL expressed openness to dialogue with other political parties, but such discussions were hindered by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) insisting on the resignation of the current government as a precondition for any talks, he said.