Featherstone for holding dialogue immediately

Urging the political parties to hold dialogue immediately, junior British minister for international development Lynne Featherstone has said Bangladesh’s January 5 election was unexpected. She said ‘A poll can not be transparent when most of the candidates were elected unopposed. Political parties have the responsibility to hold a free, fair and accountable election for the betterment of the people.’ The visiting Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development came up with the comment at a media briefing at the British High Commission on Tuesday afternoon. British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Gibson was present at the briefing. Featherstone said she was not here to talk about politics but what she felt was that it was the duty of the politicians to break the 5-year cycle of political violence in Bangladesh, referring to the election time violence. ‘Every political party has accountability to the people of the country,’ she said. ‘Bangladesh must come out of violence in the polls held after every five years. UK does not expect any political unrest in Bangladesh,’ said Featherstone responding to a query at the press briefing before leaving Dhaka at the end of her 3-day visit, according to a news agency.