A three-member high-level team from the
United Nations would visit Bangladesh Sunday to scrutinize the staging of
parliamentary elections next month.
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson in a statement in New York on
Friday said that the panel has been tasked with assessing the preparations and
conduct of the elections through visits to Bangladesh before and during the
elections.
The panel begins its first visit
to Bangladesh on Sunday and returns for about a week around the time of the
election, before reporting back to Ban Ki-moon with its key findings and
recommendations.
The caretaker government had
asked UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to send a high-level panel in an effort
to ensure that the elections are free and fair.
Parliamentary polls are scheduled
to take place on December 18, an election the government has pledged to be the
fairest in the country's history.
Francesc Vendrell, the
secretary-general's former personal representative for Afghanistan and European
Union envoy to the same country, will head the UN panel. The other members are
Bhojraj Pokharel, Nepal's chief election commissioner, and Aracelly Santana,
the former deputy director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division.