Observing the ‘election observers’
Bangladesh now has a new government, determined through an election held on January 7 that was described as "controversial" in well-known international press. As the results of the voting came out, several international media outlets likened Bangladesh to a budding one-party state, as more than 95 percent of the winners for the 298 seats are effectively from the ruling Awami League. Not to mention, the rest of the less than five percent—who are from Jatiyo Party and may pose in the new parliament as the opposition—was also "chosen" by Awami League as both parties negotiated not to confront each other in some seats.
When it became obvious in the months leading up to the polls that the major opposition political parties, including BNP, would not participate in the election without a non-partisan administration, all leading international bodies like the UN, the EU, and Western governments distanced themselves from sending full-fledged observer missions to the Bangladesh election. Such decisions are clear indicators that those major global bodies and democracies were convinced about the absence of the intention of authorities to hold a fully participatory election.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. However, countries like Russia, China, India, and Japan sent their official teams of observers to monitor the polls. There were also some individuals from the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Malaysia, Nepal, and some other countries who came to Bangladesh as "independent" observers, according to Election Commission documents.
Statements by the UN Human Rights Commission and some democratic governments following the announcement of the election results reflected their previous concerns over the credibility and legitimacy of a voting of this sort. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that "the future of all Bangladeshis is at stake." The US Department of States spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said that they "share the view with other observers that these elections were not free or fair." A spokesperson of the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said on the day after the election, "Democratic elections depend on credible, open, and fair competition. Respect for human rights, rule of law, and due process are essential elements of the democratic process. These standards were not consistently met during the election period."
However, echoing the monitors from nations like Russia and China, who declared the election as "fair, open and transparent," the so-called independent observers from some Western countries also found it "fair and transparent."
The overall coverage from Bangladeshi (and also Indian) media—which enjoys increasingly curtailed freedom—focused more on the positive reactions of the Western individual observers and portrayed them as "independent." The wording in some pro-government media reports even made those foreign individuals seem like the "official observers" of their respective countries. That prompted the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka to take to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify that the country had not deployed any observers to monitor Bangladesh's January 7 election. "Any individual who identifies as a Canadian observer is acting independently. Their views have not been endorsed by the Government of Canada," the High Commission said.
One of these individuals, Alexander B Gray from the United States, was quoted by local media as saying at a group press conference on January 8, "None of us have personally observed anything other than a fair, transparent, and accountable election in line with democratic norms, international standards, and Bangladesh's local circumstances." This is a starkly different observation from his country's official statement.
Finding this interesting, I delved deeper into exploring who these "independent" observers are. After all, we do have records of ruling party men hiring fake election observers during the 2018 general election, as reported by Reuters.
Before digging through the online records of the observers, we need to know more about the term "fake observer." According to the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), an EU-funded project that promotes citizen election observation across Europe, "Fake observation is politically biased international election observation. It is a form of political activity performed by international actors and aimed at advancing interests of politicians and political forces by imitating credible election monitoring during electoral processes."
The Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations says: non-partisan observers are required to have credible and transparent methodologies for observing election processes. This seemingly is not the case for the "independent" observers of January 7. A release provided to reporters at a press meet in Dhaka by a group of nine observers led by Alexander Barton Gray, the CEO of the Oklahoma-based lobbying firm American Global Strategies (AGS), did not specify the methodology they'd followed to monitor the election before giving a sweeping verdict of fairness in the process.
Accepting funding, including for travel and/or accommodation, from any party involved in the electoral process is also an indicator of non-partisan observation. Media reports say that the Bangladesh government had sponsored accommodation for the observers it had invited.
Partisan or fake observers make personal and biased comments about their observations or conclusions to the media. This is exactly what happened with many of the so-called independent observers on Sunday. For example, Paulo Casaca, the founder and executive director of the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF), on at least two occasions while talking to the media implied that the opposition parties were involved in the Benapole Express arson incident of January 5 in Dhaka and also blamed previous election violence on them. "But the way to improve is not through violence, is not burning trains, is not destroying polling booths," were his words about improving the overall electoral environment.
In the recent past, Casaca's SADF was accused by EU Disinfo Lab, a Brussels-based disinformation research organisation, of facilitating a vast Indian disinformation campaign targeting China and Pakistan.
One of the observers, former US Congressman Jim Bates—who has been a controversial figure throughout his career and was accused of several instances of sexual harassment and for using bad checks to fund his election campaign in 1990—"found the election to be very peaceful, free, and fair." Bates' visit is apparently part of his offerings to the Bangladesh government as to lobbying "to engage the current congressmen and senators" in its favour, as discussed in a meeting with Bangladesh's ambassador in Washington in June 2021.
Another observer was Nicholas Powell, the political editor of EU Reporter—a dubious website based in Brussels that was exposed in a Politico investigation as portraying itself as an independent media organisation while secretly facilitating political influence campaigns. In a now-deleted marketing video on YouTube, EU Reporter's narrator says: "Our business model is to offer political parties, businesses, NGOs, industry associations, financial institutions and governments the opportunity to use EU Reporter to influence the European political decision-making process by sponsoring coverage and the placement of positive news stories and editorial comment related to them."
A German observer named Volker Uwe Friedrich, founder and CEO of lobbying and consulting firm GBP International, previously visited Bangladesh to attend a conference organised by SAARC Human Rights Foundation, a dubious organisation linked with a ruling party MP that had hired fake observers during the 2018 election.
Another election monitor named Richard Semitego visited Bangladesh several times over the past years to meet government ministers and ruling party leaders, and even attended a local political gathering in 2021 in Sunamganj alongside Planning Minister MA Mannan.
Australian parliamentarian Shaoquett Moselmane, who was once investigated for his alleged involvement in a Chinese influence operation, met with Bangladesh government officials and Awami League leaders on several occasions. In November 2022, Moselmane moved a motion in the Legislative Council of New South Wales to celebrate the 76th birthday of Sheikh Hasina and highlight her government's successes.
None of the 11 individuals I searched about on the internet was representing any professional or renowned election observer organisation, two others turned out to be staff or owners of lobbying and consulting firms, while the last two and their credentials could not be traced online.
Qadaruddin Shishir is Bangladesh Fact Check Editor at AFP.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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