Bangladesh: Yunus says election likely in late 2025 or early 2026

Bangladesh interim government head Muhammad Yunus on Monday announced that the national election will be arranged at a time between the end of 2025 and first half of 2026.

In a televised address to the nation on Monday morning, Yunus, said: “Broadly speaking, the election can be scheduled between the end of 2025 and the first half of 2026.”

Yunus’s reason for late election

Yunus, who heads the caretaker government in Bangladesh that was installed after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled on August 5, has been facing immense pressure to set a date for general election in the country.

In his address to the nation on Monday, Yunus said he has repeatedly appealed to all to hold the polls after completing all the major reforms.

“However, if, and I repeat, ‘if’, due to political consensus, we have to hold the election on the basis of a flawless preparation of the voter list with minor reforms, then it may be possible to hold the elections by the end of 2025,” Yunus said.

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“And if we add to this the expected level of reforms in the electoral process and in light of the recommendations of the Election Reforms Commission and based on the national consensus, then it may take at least another six months,” he said.

‘Extremely tough’ challenge

Yunus is leading a temporary administration to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner took charge as head of the caretaker government after an August 2024 student-led revolution pushed out the regime led by Hasina regime. He was appointed chief adviser.

Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India as thousands of protesters stormed the prime minister’s palace in Dhaka.

Her government was also accused of politicising courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its power.

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Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

With inputs from agencies.