Asked by: Baroness Burt of Solihull (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are taking following the release of their report on the Bangladesh elections to address what the author, Hannah Roberts called a "high level of shortcomings" in the election process.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK wants to see credible, inclusive elections in Bangladesh with full participation, and remains committed to supporting initiatives or projects that will improve the prospects for those to happen. Following the report, DFID and the other donors scaled back our technical support to the Election Commission. This is consistent with the recommendations of the independent expert. We also sought to focus our support on the shortcomings identified in the report. When it became clear that the project providing support was not going to make further progress in those areas, we agreed with the other donors to suspend and ultimately close the project.
Any further work on electoral processes in the future will be subject to Ministerial approval.