<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The European Union will be sending an Election Exploratory Mission (ExM) to Bangladesh next week, to assess the situation on the ground ahead of the country's next national election.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The delegation is likely to begin its visit on July 9.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main objective of the ExM is to assess the "advisability, usefulness and feasibility" of a possible EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to the EU Mission in Dhaka.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This includes an assessment of the political environment and electoral framework, in close partnership and consultation with all relevant stakeholders - government authorities, political parties, civil society organisations and academics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley had a series of meetings in the last couple of months including with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his meeting with Momen, they discussed the proposed deployment of an EU Election Observation Mission in Bangladesh ahead of the next election.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Momen welcomed observers from the EU and other countries during the elections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The foreign minister reiterated that the government wants "free, fair and credible" general elections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He informed the ambassador of the steps taken to empower the Election Commission to enable it to conduct a "free and fair" election. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>