The international community was disappointed with the gross irregularities and government's interference in the upazila elections, British Minister for International Development Alan Duncan told Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Duncan called on Hasina at her parliament office Wednesday evening to express his concerns, said sources who were there during the meeting.

During the 40-minute meeting that started at 7:00pm, the UK minister said it was the expectation of the British government and also the international community that the upazila elections would be free and fair and the BNP would be accommodated at the local level. He said that would have been good for political stability.

Massive election rigging and interference during the last three phases of the elections frustrated the foreign friends and partners, Duncan claimed.

The British minister told Hasina that she had repeatedly declared that all elections held under her would be free and fair and the international community trusted her.

Duncan said the prime minister and her Awami League now enjoy absolute authority and that they could have easily made the local body elections as per the expectation of the people and the international community to give space for political opponents.

Hasina in response claimed that the elections were held perfectly as per the constitution, sources present in the meeting told The Daily Star.

She, however, admitted that there were irregularities but those were negligible.

Hasina then asked the British minister and the British High Commissioner to Dhaka Robert Gibson, who was also there, if they knew who had urged the BNP not to take part in the January 5 national elections.

She claimed that the BNP was somehow convinced that foreign powers would put BNP chief Khaleda Zia in power and that was why the party had boycotted the elections.

Gibson then told Hasina that he had no role in it and that he had not made any suggestions to the then opposition to this end.

Speaking in Bangla, the prime minister then named an ambassador who could have convinced the BNP not