Shawdesh Desk:

The United Nations has said that they were closely watching the process of Bangladesh’s general election, slated for January 7.

‘…we’re watching the process closely, and we hope that all the elections happen in a transparent and organized manner. That’s all we have for now,’ Florencia Soto Niño, an associate spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, a routine briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday while responding to a question.

She was asked about her observation about boycotting the election by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, as 1,970 candidates of 28 out of 44 political parties were contesting the upcoming elections for 300 seats in Bangladesh Parliament where 400 foreign observers were going to attend.

‘No, we don’t,’ said the associate spokesperson.

The ruling Awami League is going to hold the next national polls under prime minister Sheikh Hasina, while the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party called for the resignation of the incumbent prime minister and, setting up a neutral caretaker government to hold an acceptable election.

A crackdown against the opposition was launched on October 28, following a violent clash during a massive rally organised by the BNP. Since then, the opposition said that the law enforcement agencies arrested 22,000 of its leaders and activists in 643 cases.

AL leaders claimed that half of the arrestees have already been granted bail.