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Bangladesh said they were in serious confusion until the last moment if they would include their Bangladeshi employees in the election observer teams.

“There was a meeting today [yesterday] morning and it was decided that local staffers would not be kept with the observer teams,” the official told The Daily Star.

“There was dissatisfaction over the issue, but they [diplomats] did not express it,” he said, wishing anonymity.

The EC approved the names of 74 officials -- 46 foreigners and 28 Bangladeshis -- from 10 foreign missions in Dhaka for inclusion in foreign observer teams.

The officials are from missions of the US, the UK, the European Union, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Australia, and Canada.

On Thursday, the foreign ministry wrote to the missions in Dhaka, saying it would be highly appreciated if they do not include their local employees, who are Bangladeshis, in teams of foreign observers.

The ministry said it was a violation of electoral code of conduct to include the local employees in the international observer teams.

As the confusion ran wild, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Friday evening said Bangladeshis working at foreign missions in Dhaka and international organisations would be able to work as local observers, not as foreign observers, in the elections to Dhaka south and north city corporations.