Amid the escalation of political tension over the next general election, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent a letter to opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
“The UN secretary general has sent a letter to opposition leader Khaleda Zia. I’ve handed over it to her yesterday (Thursday),” BNP vice chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told UNB on Friday.
He, however, declined to divulge the content of the letter.
Shamsher Mobin claimed that similar letter was also sent to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Earlier on August 29, Ban Ki-moon phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia in an apparent move by the UN to resolve the country’s ongoing political deadlock over the nature of polls-time administration.
Voicing the UN concern over the political stalemate in Bangladesh that cast a shadow on the next election, the UN chief also asked the country’s two top leaders to reach an understanding through talks to hold a free, fair and credible election with the participation of all political parties.
His call for a compromise virtually went unheeded, as the government is moving ahead with its plant to hold the next polls under a partisan election-time administration while the opposition is preparing to foil it.
On November 25, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the 10th parliamentary election billed for January 5, charging the already heated political domain as the opposition enforced 71-hour blockade that took at least 16 lives.
Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco is coming to Dhaka on December 6 apparently to help break the political standoff.
The UN envoy is likely to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, opposition leader Khaleda Zia and other political party chiefs and civil society representatives during his visit and talk about the general election.
He will report back to the UN chief on the outcome of his Bangladesh visit ahead of the election, said an official source.
Taranco visited Bangladesh from May 10 to 13 at the request of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
During his stay in Dhaka, he met the Prime Minister, the BNP Chairperson, the Speaker of Parliament, the Foreign Minister, the Chief Election Commissioner, leaders of major political parties, and the representatives of civil society and the media.
Source: UNBConnect
