UK aid to continue its programmes in Bangladesh

The British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson said the UK aid would continue its programme in Bangladesh, dismissing speculations of reviewing his country’s development initiatives in Bangladesh after the elections.
“UK aid is a partnership between the people of Britain and the people of Bangladesh,” Gibson said on Saturday.
“We continue to support the poorest and most marginalised people in Bangladesh as part of our global effort to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”, he said in a statement.

Earlier UK-based the Telegraph reported that UK aid is reviewing its programmes in Bangladesh after the elections in which a major party BNP did not participate.
The Telegraph in a story citing British government said it was reviewing “its funding of aid programmes in support of Bangladesh’s parliament following an election marred by deadly violence and accusations of ballot fixing”.

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Quoting a spokesman at the High Commission in Dhaka, it said “two programmes - costing more than £55 million - could lose part of its future funding in light of the current ‘political situation’”.

It said Bangladesh as the fourth largest recipient of British government aid was given £274.9 million in 2013-2014 while £265 million was planned for 2014-2015.

BNP boycotted the polls as its demand for a non-party caretaker government to oversee the election was not met.

As a result, more than half of the seats returned uncontested winners that led to wide criticisms of the elections from the international communities.

The UK, in a post-election comment, had urged the “new government” and all political parties to act in line with the people’s interest.

Senior Foreign Office Minister of the British government, Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, had said the UK would continue to support Bangladesh’s people “in their aspirations for a more stable, prosperous and democratic future” as the country remained an important partner for them.

She, however, said the UK was “disappointed” as people in more than half of the constituencies could not vote because of uncontested winners and the turnout in most other constituencies was “low”.

She also said all political parties share “a clear and unequivocal responsibility” to work together to strengthen democratic accountability which, she said, was “an urgent priority”.

Warsi also called for building the “willingness and capacity” to hold future “participatory” elections “without the fear of intimidation or reprisals”.