Experts gathered at the European parliament on Thursday and called for peace and tranquility, as they discussed the grim political situation in Bangladesh due to the ongoing clash between the leading parties which could delay or even derail elections due by January in the country.
Recently, the European parliament passed a resolution on Bangladesh, urging the parties to refrain from violence and conduct elections in a peaceful manner.
Bangladesh will hold its national election on January 5, the Election Commission said in November, enraging the opposition, which took to the streets in protest and called for a blockade of roads, waterways and railways across the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed a poll-time administration, involving members of the ruling party and opposition to oversee the ballots, as is the usual pattern in Bangladesh to try to ensure a free and fair vote.
However, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) says the interim cabinet is not impartial and has rejected any attempt to hold an election until it is satisfied a neutral interim administration is in place without Hasina.
International Relations Secretary, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, S. M. Asaduzzaman Ripon blamed Hasina for amending the constitution through brutal majority.
"We are struggling to establish a pattern of government in which Bangladeshi people can freely exercise their voting rights to establish a non-party caretaker government. For last 20 years we are practicing non-party caretaker government and people are able to exercise their voting rights very peacefully. But this time our prime minister (Sheikh Hasina) amended the constitution. The way she amended the constitution, absolutely through a brutal majority, and most of the people particularly about 80 percent of the people are not in favour of this," he said.
In the recent months, Bangladesh has been hit by a wave of violent protests over war crimes convictions, presenting the government with a security and credibility challenge ahead of polls early next year.
The parliament in 2011 scrapped the "caretaker government" system.
Commenting over political uncertainty, Bangladesh Information Commissioner, Sadeka Halim, said the international friends are concerned about the current turmoil.
"The international friends from Europe, United States and other countries - India, South Asia, yes, they are very concerned about Bangladesh because Bangladesh is prospering despite all the odd. Bangladesh is going ahead and we cannot destroy this because it is the people, people have done it despite the political problems, despite these two roles of these political parties. People are not sitting idle, they want to work. They want to have a better life, they want to have peace," said Halim.
Blood-letting erupted across the country at the end of February when the war crimes tribunal condemned a top leader of the Jamaat party to hang.
Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947 but broke away in 1971 after a war between Bangladeshi nationalists, who were backed by India, and Pakistani forces that cost three million lives.
Member of the European Parliament for London for the Conservative Party, Timothy Charles Ayrton Tannock is pinning hopes on free and fair elections.
"I am hopeful that there will be an election on January 05, which will be free and fair, in which all the parties will participate and whoever wins, the outcome will be respected internationally," he said.
The dispute over the conduct of the election, nothing new in Bangladesh where power has flipped between the dynastic parties since the 1990s, has led to the deaths of some 25 people in protests and the arrest of some BNP leaders over the past weeks.
It comes against the backdrop of protests over conditions in factories supporting Bangladesh's $22 billion garment export industry, the economic lifeblood of the poor country of 160 million that has been rocked by a string of deadly accidents.
If the impasse is not broken, the BNP may boycott the poll, unleashing fresh unrest - or there could be a repeat of 2007, when the army stepped in and installed a provisional government to crack down on the political thuggery and violence.
The two parties differ little in terms of policy, with voters frequently just booting out the incumbent in the hope that change will bring improvement.
