The highly publicised appearance of a new poll monitoring group appears to have impressed many of us in Bangladesh with their high-level interactions with the Election Commission, ministers and a few other politicians. They were joined by quite a few foreigners, too, who have expressed their full confidence in the EC’s ability to organise fair elections. It was probably the current EC’s first formal meeting on the issue of election monitoring with some ‘’to be monitors.’’ Though chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal and four other commissioners spent about an hour meeting those local and foreign so-called observers, there was no communique or statement issued on the EC’s behalf. Unfortunately, colleagues in the media who have covered the event didn't tell us anything beyond what the chief of the local monitoring organisation and his foreign companions told them. As far as we know, the EC is yet to announce the list of the poll monitoring organisations who recieved their a...