Agreement among parties must for fair polls
Says US ambassador
US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena yesterday reiterated that Bangladesh must hold free, fair and credible elections and there should be an agreement on how to hold such elections.
“And that is what drives my total confidence in fact that there will be constructive dialogue among the parties. Democracy must remain in Bangladesh as other forms of governments tried in the past have not worked well,†he said.
Mozena was talking to journalists after addressing a seminar organised by Washington-based US Bangladesh Advisory Council in the capital's American Club.
The council is engaged in promoting US-Bangladesh relations and understanding and advising US trade, development and foreign policy towards Bangladesh.
He said Bangladesh by its nature must be a democracy because its democratic culture was very rich, deep and strong.
The US ambassador expressed his optimism that dialogues were taking place right now informally among the political players to find a common ground on a way to hold elections in a free, fair and credible manner.
Mozena was asked if he still expected dialogues after BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia rejected a recent dialogue offer from Awami League.
“I believe very strongly that the way ahead for democracy in Bangladesh is for all of major players to engage in dialogue to come up with agreement on way for political process to move ahead.
“And I am very hopeful that this dialogue in fact will take place because I don't know of any alternative.
“And I am sure that everybody loves Bangladesh and everybody knows that there needs to be an agreement on how to move forward with the political process and the only way to reach an agreement is in fact to have constructive dialogue,†he said.
Replying to a question regarding today's hartal and the prospect of many more hartals in the future, Mozena said he hated hartals because it had negative effects on many people who, at the end of the day, found it difficult to have the means to buy food.
He encouraged all political players to find other mechanisms, which did not harm people, to express their views.
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