Dhaka/New Delhi, Feb 11: Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday said preparations were underway to stage general elections by December as nationwide vandalisms over the past week prompted the interim government chief Muhammad Yunus to agree to the proposal.
The EC’s comments came a day after Yunus assured former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to hold elections by December.
Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah told journalists: “We are preparing for the national elections in December (this year).” He was speaking after a meeting with diplomats of 17 western and other countries alongside the United Nations and European Union (EU) representatives here.
Instead of local government elections, as proposed by a government-appointed commission, national election is the priority, Sanaullah, who was flanked by the diplomats, said.
He said the chief adviser earlier mentioned two deadlines but “we, however, are preparing for the first date.”
UN resident representative Stefan Liller, who attended the meeting, said the United Nations expected the upcoming polls to be the best in Bangladesh’s history and “we are supporting the EC to conduct a free and fair election.”
He, however, declined to comment on challenges of holding such elections, saying “that is not for me to comment.”
Yunus assumed the charge of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8, 2024, three days after the ouster of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime in an uprising led by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
His council of advisers – effectively the cabinet – which includes three student movement leaders, launched a reform campaign constituting several commissions to recommend restructuring of the country’s administrative systems and also Bangladesh’s original 1972 constitution.
The government-instituted commissions submitted their reports while the one for the constitutional reform proposed a series of changes in the charter.
The Constitution Reform Commission recommended changing state principles, deleting “secularism” and “nationalism” and suggested, if needed, the charter should be scrapped entirely instead of amendments, which was done previously several times.
The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement that led the uprising earlier vowed to “bury” the 1972 constitution calling it a “Mujibist” charter, a reference to the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
In view of visibly mounting pressures from the BNP and other major parties, Yunus earlier said the polls could be held after minimal reforms by December or after substantial ones in June 2026. (PTI)
