US doesn't show favourisitsm towards any party: Haas

US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas has said that the US is in favour of holding free and fair elections in Bangladesh and is not siding with any particular political party in the country.

Talking to the reporters after his meeting with Awami League leaders at the party’s headquarters in the city the US envoy said this.

“This meeting with the Awami League party is part of a series of meetings that I've done with all parts of Bangladeshi society”.

“I've met as you know with other political parties, I regularly visit media outlets. I speak frequently with civil society. I interact with the police and the security forces. And this is all part of what I do as the American ambassador,” he added.

He said in all these meetings he repeated the same messages.

“And these are US policy that we support a free, fair and peaceful election with no violence on the part of anyone,” he said adding that that the US believe that everyone has a role to play in making sure that elections are free, fair, and peaceful.

“The government has a role. The media has a role, the judiciary political parties, civil society, media, security services, and of course, the voters and each of those have to play their roles and be allowed to play their role in order to fair election”.

“I also reiterate that the United States does not support any one party over the other. And what we support is a democratic process that will allow the people of Bangladesh to choose their next government”.

Asked about the US position on the non-party caretaker government, he said the United States has no position regarding this and the political parties are to decide their approach about this.

“That we are only concerned and interested that there be free fair elections that are free of violence,” he said.

Asked whether the US is playing the role for a particular party, he said “This is a weird question when I'm sitting at the Awami League party headquarters. We meet with all political parties. We do not play favourites”.

“There is no preference that we meet with people from all sides and parts of society evenly and we do not play favourites” he said.

Talking to the reporters about the meeting with the US envoy, AL general secretary Obaidul Quader said that they discussed issues related to holding a free and fair election and he had reiterated his party’s commitment to ensure that.

“We told him that our prime minister has time and again expressed her government’s commitment for holding a free and fair election,” Quader said.

Responding to a question, he said that they were not feeling any pressure due to the hectic move of foreigners over the next elections.

Like them we also want a free and fair election so why do we feel any pressure!

“We feel the pressure from our conscience only,” he added.

He said the US envoy did not raise the issue of a caretaker government or dissolving the parliament.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com