Bangladesh Advisor Urges Peaceful Polls as 40 Million First-Time Voters Await

Ahead of upcoming elections Hossain said, "We have not been able to cast our votes for a long time. Particularly, is a figure of 40 million voters who never voted in general. The elections are extremely important. Equally important is the process through which the election goes. That is very peaceful, that people are really at the opportunity to go to... and cast their votes without fear and without any disturbance. Again, it is also true that no elections have been held completely peacefully. This morning I was reading about the elections in 1991, when all the parties had worked together to bring down the nation... But even in the elections, there were 87 or so cases of violence on the election day. Now let us not wish away on possibilities. It is possible that some violence will take place. But the important thing is that by and large it must be peaceful,"

The Foreign affairs advisor called on Bangladesh's Election Commission to ensure that incidents of violence do not occur.

"Second thing is that the election commission and the law enforcing authorities must take immediate steps so that this don't go out of hand. Some incidents will happen, but that should be very limited and immediate actions need to be taken. The media during the elections will play a very important role. I discussed a lot of this in the last few minutes, I will need to repeat those. I think it's important that the events in general are covered so that at the end of day we can say that yes, there are some troubles but we have been able to hold a credible relationship. To qualify with one word that whether the relation has reflected the will of the king. Now who decides whether it has reflected the will of the king? I'm sure this election will definitely develop. Even if there are small violations here and there, which I'm saying because traditionally we have seen that in each and every election something can be incident and desired incident will be... But I wish all of you a very vibrant day of reporting," Hossain said.

Hossain said that the interim government had worked hard to ensure that the entire process completes without any untoward incident.

"I think that such a big event, such an important event, does really matter. Let's see, let us all hope that the elections will end peacefully and equally. People come and express their will and we shall have a report to the government. Well, we had certain things to do in our hand. We have tried to do it as much as possible. It's not possible to complete all this in this short period of time, which is okay. and give us the government and the governance that will be happily accepted," he said.

Nearly 2,000 candidates-representing more than 50 political parties as well as independent contenders-are contesting the 300 parliamentary seats. The general election will be held simultaneously with a referendum on the July National Charter.

- ANI