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Election project may lose fund

Foreign assistance being reviewed after one-sided Jan 5 polls

Pankaj karmakar
International donors plan to reduce financial assistance to the Election Commission following the "one-sided” parliamentary polls on January 5 and the subsequent "controversial” upazila elections.
The assistance comes through the five-year Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh (SEMB) project administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financial cooperation from the European Union (EU), the UKaid and the USAID.
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"Following the one-sided 10th Parliamentary Election on 5 January where elections didn't even take place in more than half of the constituencies and subsequent controversial local council (Upazila) elections, the United Nations conducted a review of the on-going electoral assistance provided through the SEMB project," the UNDP said in the background section of a job advertisement on its website.
"The UN Focal Point (FP) for the Electoral Assistance ... outlined that the assistance would be provided in a phased approach with reduced assistance in 2014, more targeted and focused on promoting demonstrable improvements in the electoral process,” it continued.
The SEMB donors also conducted their own internal reviews of their electoral assistance and indicated reduced electoral support, added the advertisement seeking the Chief Technical Adviser (CTA) under the Electoral Reform Programme of the UNDP, Bangladesh.
The CTA, the advertisement states, will advise the chief election commissioner (CEC) on overall electoral matters and provide strategic directions for the development of electoral policy and reforms.
Talking to The Daily Star, SEMB Project Director Sirazul Islam said, "The issue of reducing financial assistance has been discussed several times. But any concrete decision is yet to be taken."
But the donors can review and cut
assistance to any project anytime and it's quite normal, said Sirazul, also secretary to the EC Secretariat.
The project expenditures were estimated around Tk 141 cores and around 65 percent of the money has already been discharged, Sirazul added.
The EC bought a huge amount of technical equipment, including cameras and scanners for updating voter roll with photographs in 2012, developed software for Result Management System (RMS) and Candidates Management System (CMS) and procured over 700 laptops under this project, he informed.
The SEMB was launched in 2011 aiming at enhancing professional and institutional capacities of the EC to
effectively implement its mandate of organising credible elections.
However, the donors have lost confidence in the EC following the January 5 election and that's why they move to cut the financial assistance, EC sources told The Daily Star.
The January 5 polls, boycotted by the BNP-led alliance, denied more than half of the electorate, numbering 9.19 crore, their voting rights as 153 candidates were elected unopposed, while elections were held in 147 constituencies.
Subsequently, elections to more than 450 upazila parishads were held between February and May. These polls were marked by huge vote rigging, ballot box stuffing and violence by ruling Awami League men.