The United States-based election monitoring organisation, International Republican Institute (IRI), has expressed optimism about sending observers for the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, according to the Election Commission (EC).
This information was conveyed in a press release signed by the Director of the EC’s Public Relations wing, Md Ruhul Amin Mallick.
The release stated that an advance delegation from the International Republican Institute held a courtesy meeting with Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah at the Election Bhaban on Wednesday afternoon.
During the meeting, discussions focused on the preparations for the forthcoming election and the overall activities of the Election Commission.
The delegation reportedly expressed satisfaction with the EC’s preparation and conveyed their hope that the institute would send election observers for the national polls. Senior Secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat, Akhtar Ahmed, was present during the meeting.
John Fluharty, political party and campaign consultant for IRI, provided a brief comment following the meeting, “You know, there’s never a bad day to talk about free and fair elections. We appreciate the BEC’s time on Wednesday.
“It was a great discussion. As you know from our release earlier this week, we will be issuing a report not long after we finish this mission and we look forward to all of you reviewing that. Thank you very much.”
The 8-member delegation was led by the IRI Board of Directors member, Christopher J Fussner.
Other members of the delegation included – Lisa Curtis, senior fellow and director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program (CNAS); Jessica Keegan, technical expert on democratic elections and political processes (IRI); Steve Cima, resident programme director (IRI); Jami Spykerman, programme director (NDI); John Fluharty, political party and campaign consultant (IRI); and Darin Bielecki, consultant (IRI); and Amitabha Ghosh, programme consultant (IRI).
