A discussion has been unfolding in Bangladesh centering on a question raised during a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters. At the press briefing held on January 5, a Bangladeshi journalist asked about the possibility of the UN sending observers to Bangladesh’s upcoming national parliamentary election. In response, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said, “Without a mandate from the General Assembly or the Security Council, the United Nations does not deploy observers on its own. As a result, we do not do this anymore.”

The 38-minute press conference was uploaded to the UN’s official YouTube channel. At around the 26-minute mark, Somoy Television’s Special Correspondent Mohammad Hasanuzzaman can be seen asking questions. He raised a total of three questions related to Bangladesh to Dujarric, and the above response was given in relation to his first question.

Following this, misleading campaigns have been launched on social media from various Awami League–supporting accounts.

These campaigns primarily claim that the UN will not send election observers because there is no possibility of a free and fair election, and that the absence of UN observers would mean the upcoming national election will not gain legitimacy.

In this context, Ashraful Alam Khokan, former deputy press secretary to fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, made a Facebook post. He wrote: “Only 36 days remain for a so-called ‘world-class(!)’ election—an election that the whole world is supposed to watch in amazement. But the first blow has come from the United Nations: they are not sending any observers to this election.”

His post has since been widely copied and shared by Awami League supporters.

Some such posts can be seen here, here, here and here. Fake photo cards related to this issue, circulated from Awami League propaganda pages, can be found here.

The UN Does Not Usually Send Election Observers

Following the spread of this propaganda on social media, The Dissent verified the claims and found that the United Nations does not usually send observers to national elections.

On February 1, 2022, the UN’s Electoral Assistance focal point published a policy titled “UN Electoral Assistance: Supervision, Observation, Panels and Certification” Clause 25 of the policy, under the section on election observation, states, “UN electoral observation requires a mandate from the General Assembly or the Security Council.”

The policy also notes that the UN observes elections only in very rare cases.

The Last UN Election Observation Missions Were in Burundi and Fiji

Clause 27 of the same policy further states, “The UN rarely observes elections. The last UN election observation missions were in Burundi in 2015 and in Fiji in 2001 – and previous to that in the mid 1990s.”

Further investigation shows that, according to the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, the Burundi observation mission was deployed at the request of the Burundian government under UN Security Council Resolution 2137 (2014). The mission became operational on January 1, 2015, completed its mandate on November 18 of the same year, and all activities were officially concluded on December 31.

Meanwhile, according to information from UN Global Perspectives Human Stories, the UN deployed an observation mission to Fiji after the country’s then caretaker government invited the UN to observe elections scheduled for August–September 2001.

The UN Last Sent Volunteers to Bangladesh in 2001

The United Nations last sent election observers to Bangladesh in 2001, jointly with the European Union, during the country’s eighth parliamentary election. At that time, 22 UN volunteers were deployed as observers.

This information is confirmed by a report published on August 27, 2001, by UN Global Perspectives Human Stories. According to the report, the UN volunteers who came to Bangladesh that year were from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The report can be found here.

Searches using various keywords reveal no evidence that the UN has directly sent any election observers or volunteers to Bangladesh in any election after 2001.