Addressing a press conference at the EC office here, EC Deputy Director General for External Relations Herve Jouanjean said the EU is ready to dispatch an exploratory mission as soon as a request is received from the Bangladesh authorities as part of observing the next general elections.

Jouanjean, who led a high-powered mission from the EC headquarters, also urged the political parties to reach an agreement through dialogue on electoral reforms to ensure free, fair, transparent and credible elections.

"It is the internal debate…If there is need for election reforms that will be decided by the people and political parties, not by an external observer," he said when asked about the opposition's reform proposals.

Recommending debates on reform proposals in accordance with democratic principles, the EU delegation chief said, "What matters is that there is a real dialogue between political parties as I feel no body is totally right, no body is totally wrong."

"It is important that democracy is not only works on elections but also works during the life of a government," he added.

When asked about his meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Justice MA Aziz and EU's exploratory mission, Jouanjean said if invited to observe the electoral process, the mission would look at the details of the organisation of the ballots and put up suggestions to improve the situation.

He said the EU observers will not only go to places where the votes will take place on the election day but will go into details of the organisation of the ballots.

Herve Jouanjean said there will be a dialogue between the observer mission and the Election Commission and "generally, we take decision on the information we have, if we are not satisfied with the condition we just do not come."

He called for allowing time for draft voter list to be thoroughly scrutinised and suggested it could be placed on the Internet for the citizens to detect any flaws.

Referring to EU's experience in observing elections in other countries, he said EU observers' suggestions were accepted by election commissions in those countries.

"We do not observe the elections where the situation is simple, we observe the elections where the situation is not totally easy," he added.

Replying to a question about his observation on corruption, Herve Jouanjean said according to Transparency International there is a problem of corruption in Bangladesh and said that the EU made it clear to the authorities of Bangladesh to improve the situation.

In this context, he said the EU and Bangladesh government are working together to improve the situation through participating in police reforms, separation of the judiciary from the executive and other programmes.

The press conference was attended by Ambassador Stefan Frowein, head of the delegation, Ms Helen Campbell, head of unit for Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in DG external relations, Philippe Meyer, head of unit for South and South East Asia and Mediterranean and DG Trade.

Meanwhile, the EU presidency has urged the Bangladesh government to ensure that the JMB top leaders captured recently will be brought to justice in an open and transparent manner.

Welcoming the arrest of JMB leaders Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, the EU presidency in a statement noted that this was a significant achievement, which demonstrates Bangladesh's strong commitment to the fight against terrorism.