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Visiting Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon Thursday described the caretaker form of government as very acceptable and hoped next elections will be held under the system that conducted three general elections in the past, reports UNB.
"What we do know is that Bangladesh has established a very acceptable system of a caretaker form of government that has worked for three times. Obviously, that will happen again."
Don McKinnon made the observation while he was telling reporters during his meeting with Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan at the Foreign Ministry in the city Thursday.
Replying to a question, he said: "…in any society when an election is pending, election scenario is emerging, people get excited; that's a good sign - good sign of democracy that people want to get involved, that people want to be active."
Asked about the issues he discussed with the Foreign Minister, McKinnon said regional and bilateral issues including Commonwealth programmes in the country came up.
He said a number of Commonwealth technical programmes are on Bangladesh and "we like to ensure a kind of programmes that do actively assist the people of Bangladesh."
The Commonwealth Secretary General praised Bangladesh's endeavours to alleviate poverty and its newly launched Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). "We can see some usefulness, some new kind of economic trends in this country," he said.
Meanwhile, Don McKinnon urged Bangladesh to enhance its contribution and technical support to the Commonwealth.
He made the request during his meeting with Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman at the latter's office.
"They want us to contribute more in the Commonwealth and enhance our technical support, including scholarships," Saifur Rahman told reporters after the meeting. Replying to a query, he denied having any dialogue in the meeting about the politics of the country.
However, while going out after the meeting, McKinnon told the reporters that they had discussions on politics, economics and business.
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