, Jan. 25 -- Some 500 foreign election observers, alongside over 55,000 local observers, from different countries and international organisations have expressed interest in monitoring Bangladesh's upcoming national election and referendum, scheduled to be held simultaneously on February 12.

According to the Election Commission (EC), a total of 55,454 local observers from 81 domestic organisations have applied to observe the polls. Among them, 7,997 observers intend to monitor the election centrally, while 47,457 others plan to observe the voting process at local levels across the country.

No hide-and-seek, elections to be transparent: CEC

On the international front, the European Union (EU) has planned to deploy up to 200 observers for ...