Commonwealth To Send Pre-Poll Mission On Nov 19

The Commonwealth will send a pre-election assessment mission to Dhaka from November 19-23, ahead of the 12th parliamentary polls.

Commonwealth expressed their desire to send the mission to the Chief Election Commissioner, Kazi Habibul Awal, via email earlier this week.

On Friday (November 3) Morning CEC Kazi Habibul Awal confirmed to Press that he has received the letter.

"I have informed them they can come," he said.

He said his office will inform the matter to the foreign and home ministries.

According to an EC official, the Commonwealth will decide on sending a full observer mission only after the findings of the pre-election mission are communicated to the Commonwealth secretary-general.

Earlier, the EU sent a pre-election mission and decided not to send a full observer mission. The EU, however, later said that they would send a four-member observer team to monitor the polls.

A US pre-election mission has visited Bangladesh but is yet to declare whether they will send a full mission or not.