Shawdesh Desk:

The United Nations (UN) has reiterated its call to hold a free and fair election in Bangladesh. They also urged all political parties to ensure the voting rights of the people.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general, made this call in response to a journalist’s query at a press briefing at the UN on Wednesday.

He was asked, “According to Human Rights Watch report, ongoing systematic crackdown on opposition members and critics by Bangladesh security forces makes a free and fair election impossible. What specific steps is going to take from the Secretary-General to ensuring the voting rights of the Bangladeshi people, as the Voice of America English service reports, Bangladesh prepping for unfair election?

Dujarric said, “The UN is not deploying observers to these elections. We don’t… we rarely, rarely do that without a specific mandate.”

He further stated, “We, again, and we’ve seen the reports from Human Rights Watch and other organisations, we again call on all parties involved to ensure that people are able to express their votes freely, their opinion freely, free of any harassment.”