The EU Election Observation Mission to Bangladesh has deployed 56 long-term observers across all 64 of the country’s administrative districts.
The observers will monitor key parts of the electoral process at regional level and feed information back to a core team of experts based in Dhaka, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced on Saturday.
They will work in pairs and meet voters, election officials, candidates and political parties, as well as citizen observers and youth activists in cities, towns and villages, Deputy Chief Observer Inta Lase said in the statement.
The long-term observers come from EU member states as well as Canada, Norway and Switzerland, and received briefings on Bangladesh’s electoral process, political environment, legal framework, and media and social landscape before deployment.
The mission was deployed following an invitation from Bangladesh’s authorities and is led by Chief Observer Ivars Ijabs, a Member of the European Parliament, who launched it at a press conference in Dhaka on 11 January.
More observers due closer to election day
The mission is expected to expand as polling day nears, with 90 short-term observers due to arrive alongside observers from diplomatic missions of EU member states and from Canada, Norway and Switzerland.
Those teams are expected to observe election-day procedures including voting, counting and tabulation — the process of compiling results — while a delegation of Members of the European Parliament is also due to join, according to the statement.
At full strength, the mission is set to include 200 observers drawn from all 27 EU member states, Canada, Norway and Switzerland.
Preliminary findings are due to be presented at a press conference in Dhaka on 14 February, while a final report with recommendations will be delivered to the authorities after the electoral process is complete and published online.
The mission said it operates under a code of conduct requiring neutrality and non-interference, and follows international principles for election observation endorsed under UN auspices in 2005.
