DHAKA, Dec 22: More than 200,000 local and foreign observers will monitor landmark elections in Bangladesh next week, making it the most closely watched vote in the country’s history, an official said on Monday.

Election commission spokesman S. M. Asaduzzaman said foreign observers, including those from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the United Nations, made up more than 500 of the total.

Anyone with observer status was free to visit polling centres throughout the country, he said.

“This is going to be the fairest elections in the country’s history. More than 200,000 elections observers will monitor the polls,” he said.—AFP