U.S. Election 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It is an honor to work among so many veterans who have found their way to the State Department or have continued to serve in the Department of Defense. We work together at the Embassy in Dhaka and, indeed, throughout the world. We honor these and all veterans today and thank them for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of the safety and freedom of all Americans.

An amazing event took place last week with the election of a new President of our nation. It was a proud day to be an American, watching the election results from the other side of the world. The U.S Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh hosted an “election results gala” at a local hotel. There were over 700 guests in attendance, including many political leaders, business leaders and educators from Bangladesh along with members of the diplomatic corps of many other nations. As we watched the returns come in, we had a number of opportunities to present a showcase of American democracy in action with handouts, three live feeds from computer and television networks, democracy quizzes, mock elections, photos with life-size cutouts of Senators McCain and Obama and many casual conversations explaining the electoral system and other challenging concepts concerning our election system.

It was truly remarkable to see the people of the United States engage in the active work of democracy. The huge voter turnout did not include violence or threats at the polling place as can happen in other parts of the world. Voters were patient and persistent as they exercised their rights and duties to vote. The results came in quickly and without dispute in all but a few races. Most importantly, the concession speech by Senator McCain and the victory speech by President Elect Obama were strong statements to America and the world about the greater good served by an orderly transition in governmental leadership. It may be easy to take these events for granted. But many people around the world know from experience that they cannot.

Bangladesh is a nation in an important transition. It has been under a non-elected provisional government since 2006 and stands poised to hold free and fair elections on December 18, 2008. There is currently much anticipation and plenty of concern about the upcoming short campaign period and election as a large number of parties seek alliances, find candidates to place on the ballot, and negotiate on election rules.

The American election has not gone unnoticed here. Results and analysis has filled the news media and editorials for the past week. The hope of many here is that the Bangladeshi people can elect leaders who will serve the needs of the people that they represent. Strong leadership on behalf of the Bangladeshi people is vital to the development of this nation. The needs for education, health care, sanitation, transportation and other forms of infrastructure are challenging and pressing. All of us in the American community in Dhaka wish our hosts the very best during this election period.