Yunus staged a resignation when we want elections by December: Bangladesh's BNP leader

A senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has said that the country’s interim ruler, Muhammad Yunus, resorted to theatrics when the party urged him to hold elections by December.

At a rally in Dhaka on Wednesday, BNP’s Standing Committee member Salauddin Ahmed said the party wanted an election roadmap from Yunus but the interim ruler instead decide to stage a resignation attempt.

“Yet he staged a resignation. We wanted elections by December. We are calling on everyone to unite in demanding a neutral government, democracy, and elections. Let all of us aim for Bangladesh first and foremost under the leadership of Tarique Rahman. The future Bangladesh will be a new Bangladesh,” said Ahmed, according to Bangladesh’s Business Standard newspaper.

The development has come days after Yunus, the unelected ruler of Bangladesh propped by agitating groups and the military last year, threatened to resign over demands of early elections. He has maintained that institutional reforms, not elections, are his priority.

Such misplaced priorities have, however, led to a situation where even political parties that supported the ouster of Sheikh Hasina have turned against Yunus. He has also entered into a tussle with the country’s powerful army chief , General Waker-Uz-Zaman. While Zaman has called for early elections like most of the mainstream politicians of the country, Yunus has tried to instigate a revolt in the army by putting weight behind Zaman’s pro-Pakistan rival faction.

‘There is a very clever attempt to create rift in unity’

Ahmed further said that such tactics by Yunus are an attempt to create a rift between the unity of the country.

“We want to build a state where youth will participate. We are working to build a new Bangladesh after the 5 August mass uprising. There is a very clever attempt to create a rift in unity,” Ahmed said at the rally.

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Separately, party leader Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed slammed the Yunus’ government as being full of foreigners.

“I want to say one thing—most [officials] of this government are not even citizens of this country. They are talking about doing many things today. I want to tell them, you don’t need to do all this. We don’t need to know what benefits or disadvantages exist in the corridor. I have said before that the government should clarify what is happening in Saint Martin’s and Sajek,” said Mirza Abbas.