Former US President Jimmy Carter, on Sunday called off plans to monitor Bangladesh's violence-tainted October one general election because of last week's attacks on New York and Washington. In a statement issued in Dhaka, the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Atlanta-based Carter Centre, said they were regretfully calling off their joint plan to monitor Bangladesh's elections due to circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11 in the United States. Carter, who was set to lead a 30-member team to monitor the election, said in the statement, “I have confidence in the commitment of the people of Bangladesh to have an open and democratic election.
The two centres will continue with their other election-related activities, such as the training of polling officials, NDI official Saiful Karim said. The former president, who visited Bangladesh last month to assess the pre-poll atmosphere, was to be accompanied by his wife Rosalyn on the monitoring trip.
Some 200 foreign observers were expected to monitor the elections, according to the United Nations last week.
Bureau Report