Key-enabler of Awami League’s farce elections successfully remains out of radar

While two former Chief Election Commissioners – Nurul Huda and Kazi Habibul Awal currently are in police remand on allegations of their involvement behind 2018 and 2024 farce elections in Bangladesh, which took place under the rule of Awami League, one of the top-enablers of these highly-controversial elections – Mawlana Muhammad Abed Ali, surprisingly remains out of radar – either of the media or the authorities concerned.

Following the December 30 general elections in 2018, where the ruling Awami League and its leftist-Islamist coalition won 290 out of 300 seats in the parliament, an investigative report by Dhaka’s leading English newspaper, The Daily Star, exposed the dubious nature of “foreign observers” who had praised the election as “peaceful” and “credible”. The report suggests that these observers may have been sponsored or affiliated with the ruling party and its Islamist ally, Jatiya Party.

In the report titled – ‘দু’টি নির্বাচন পর্যবেক্ষক সংস্থা সমাচার’ [All about the two observer agencies] published on January 8, 2019, The Daily Star said, two election monitoring organization which were covered in the Bangladeshi and international media to prove credibility of the election were ‘SAARC Human Rights Foundation’ and ‘Election Monitoring Forum’. These two organizations held a press conference on December 31 in Dhaka’s National Press saying, “Eleventh parliamentary elections have been better, fair and neutral than the past”.

The two observer organizations in question were the ‘SAARC Human Rights Foundation’ and ‘Election Monitoring Forum.’ Notably, the ‘SAARC Human Rights Foundation’ is not affiliated with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and is led by a radical Muslim named Mawlana Mohammad Abed Ali.

Interestingly, Abed Ali is also the Executive Director of the ‘Election Monitoring Forum,’ an organization that lacks a website.

Mawlana Abed Ali is the Secretary General of the SAARC Human Rights Foundation (SHRF).

Further investigation reveals that several MPs from the ruling Awami League and Jatiya Party hold positions as Chairman and advisors of the SAARC Human Rights Foundation, and the organization receives financial assistance from these individuals. Such affiliations with political parties should make these organizations ineligible as election observers, as per the Election Monitoring Policy of the Bangladesh Election Commission. However, the Election Commission overlooked these affiliations while registering these dubious organizations as election watchdogs.

During the 2018 general election, two Canadian nationals named Tania Dawn Foster and Chally Foster presented themselves as “international observers” monitoring elections in many countries, including Bangladesh.

However, there is no evidence of their existence as election observers anywhere else in the world or even in Canada. This raises suspicions that they may have been invited to Bangladesh by Mawlana Abed Ali or ruling party leaders to play the role of foreign observers during the election.

Tania Dawn Foster and Chally Foster are siblings and their claim of observing elections in other countries is false. Even in Canada, none of the organizations have ever heard these names as being election observers.

Even there is no existence of any Tania Dawn Foster or Chally Foster in the social media or any other election-related contents. Considering these facts, it may be concluded – Tania Dawn Foster and Chally Foster were invited in Bangladesh either by Mawlana Abed Ali or those leaders of the ruling party to perform the role of foreign observers during the 2018 general elections.

Meanwhile, the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), a reputable regional network in Asia working on the promotion of democratic elections, was unable to observe the 2018 general elections in Bangladesh due to delays in issuing accreditation. ANFREL, which has conducted 57 election observation missions across Asia since its establishment in 1997, was a notable absence during the critical election.

According to social media account of Mawlana Abed Ali, he was born in Alinagar village of Vijaynagar upazila under Brahmanbaria district and went to Jamia Ahmadia Sunnia Alia Madrasha. Surprisingly on his social media account Mawlana Abed Ali claims to have studied at “University, Bangladesh” although there is no existence of any such university in the country. He also claims to be affiliated with the following organizations and institutions:

Advisor, Darul Ihsan University; Chairman, Election Monitoring Forum EMF; and Secretary General Central Committee, SAARC Human Rights Foundation. He has edited a book titled “শত বিষয়ে শত লেখকের দৃষ্টিতে বঙ্গবন্ধু” (Bangabandhu in the eyes of hundreds of writers on hundreds of topics).

In addition to running an election monitoring agency, he is the director of two business companies namely Nishat Shipping Service Private Limited and MS Bismillah Oil Supplier.

According to media reports, Mawlana Mohammad Abed Ali’s ‘Election Monitoring Forum’ was registered with the Election Commission without any experience just 3 months before the 2018 national elections.

Weeks before the 2024 general elections, Mawlana Mohammad Abed Ali resurfaced in news headlines in Bangladesh when he met several senior officials of the Bangladesh government, including the Chief Election Commissioner being accompanied by a number of foreigners who were proclaimed to be election observers. None of the foreign nationals have any past experience as election observer, while few of them, including Nick Powell, who is described as ‘Political Editor’ of a dubious website named EU Reporter have already generated serious doubts about how and why people like such individuals have been brought by Abed Ali to monitor the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh. Leter, Abed Ali, being accompanied by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awam met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

One of the foreign election observers of Mawlana Abed Ali was an individual named Nick Powell, who is described as ‘Political Editor’ of EU Reporter visited Bangladesh pretending as an election observer from the European Union and held series of meetings with high-profile figures, including the Chief Election Commissioner.

Searching the web, the name of EU Reporter emerged on Wikipedia. Through a careful vetting of this Wikipedia page, anyone will easily understand, this has been created by the members of this nest of fake journalists possibly by paying few hundred dollars to one of the so-called editors of Wiki.

Most interestingly, while the Wikipedia page of EU Reporter says, “EU Reporter is a Brussels-based news website publishing content relating to the European Union, founded in 2002”, in reality, the domain of this website was purchased in 2010 and launched in 2011. Meaning, the information provided in the Wikipedia page is absolutely false.

Still, Mawlana Abed Ali did not face any obstacle in playing the role of enabler of 2018 and 2024 farce elections, as he was enjoying patronization from several influential figures in the Awami League government, including Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam and top bosses at the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI). He also had intimacy with top-brasses at the Center for Research and Information (CRI), an Awami League-aligned research institute.

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An internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning anti-militancy journalist, writer, research-scholar, counterterrorism specialist and editor of Blitz. He regularly writes for local and international newspapers on diversified topics, including international relations, politics, diplomacy, security and counterterrorism. Follow him on ‘X’ @Salah_Shoaib

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