The next national election will be free, fair and impartial whether the foreign observers come or not, said Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Friday (22 September).
"All the elections that have already been held, including the local government polls, have been very free and fair. It doesn't matter if anyone observed our election or not. The BNP will not be given the opportunity to destabilise the country with this [issue]," said the minister during a view-exchange meeting on contemporary issues with journalists at the YNT Center on Dewanji Pond lane in Chattogram city.
Hasan said, "When there is an election in India, the question of whether foreign observers go there is not talked about much. Nor when elections are held in different countries of Europe.
"Only in our country, there is a lot of talk about who observed the election and who didn't."
The minister said the European Union would send a small observer team and they have mentioned in their letter about a shortage of budget.
"Whether EU observers come or not, our country has an Election Monitoring Forum, and observers from various SAARC countries will come to observe the elections," he said.
