Visiting European Parliamentary delegation has expressed its hope that all political parties of Bangladesh will stand for establishing real choice of citizens at the ballot box.
The delegation came up with the remark at a press conference on Wednesday at the EU office in Dhaka before wrapping up their Bangladesh visit.
The EP delegation, led by Jean Lambert, paid an official visit to Bangladesh from February 12 to 14.
The delegation urged Bangladesh authorities to facilitate the necessary conditions for an inclusive, free and fair general election.
The lawmakers also hoped that the political environment in Bangladesh would become 'less confrontational and hostile' in the coming months with an inclusive election in place.
She said they had a meeting at the Election Commission and discussed how the next national election can be inclusive, free and fair.
They said economic growth of the past years and the encouraging progress in the fight against poverty made Bangladesh an important trading partner of the European Union.
"These will further help to achieve the goals to which it has committed in a more inclusive manner," the delegation said.
The European Parliamentarians, however, regretted the deterioration of human rights situation over the past few years.
The MEPs recalled the need to fully align the Labour Act and the EPZ Labour Act with ILO standards, in particular Conventions No. 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
They also noted that the likely graduation to middle-income country status will require a transitional process to implement and monitor the required ILO Conventions.
The visit of the MEPs was organized in two parts. On Monday, they visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar and gathered first-hand information on the ongoing exodus and refugee crisis.
According to UNB, this part of the visit was organised together with a Delegation of the European Parliament's Sub-committee on Human Rights, led by its Chairman Pier Antonio Panzeri, who travelled onwards to Myanmar.
During the second part of the visit, the MEPs returned to capital Dhaka for meetings with the Bangladesh authorities, mainly with its counterparts in the Jatiya Sanghad, the Bangladesh Parliament, and with representatives of civil society.
MEPs met State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda and Commerce Secretary Shubhashish Bose ahead of the general elections.
Richard Corbett, James Nicholson, Wajid Khan and Sajjad Kari, in his capacity as rapporteur on South Asia in the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, were among delegation members.
Ambassador/Head of Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh Rensje Teerink was also present at the briefing.