Dhaka: Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday demanded that the general election be held by July-August this year, refuting interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’s stance to stage it by the year-end or mid-2026.
“There is no reason to delay the election that much,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir after an overnight meeting of the party’s standing committee that was chaired virtually by acting BNP chairperson Tarique Rahman from London.
Alamgir said the standing committee held a lengthy discussion on Yunus’s planned election deadline but came up with a conclusion that the polls should not be delayed for so long as voters list updating should not take more than a month and other related tasks would take one to two months at most.
“We believe, as the Election Commission has already been formed and there is relative stability in governance, there is no reason to delay the national election further. Delays only deepen the political and economic crises,” he said.
The BNP also opposed the idea propagated by some leaders of the interim government to hold local government elections before parliamentary polls.
The party also criticised the interim government’s economic policies, particularly plans for gas price hikes and tax increases.
“We have repeatedly said there is no alternative to elected government and this is the most important factor for democracy,” Alamgir said.
He called upon the “government, the Election Commission and political parties” to take steps to hold the elections by mid-2025 in the “greater interest of the country”.
Yunus and his advisers or de facto ministers said reforms and preparedness for elections were going on, suggesting that polls should be staged after accomplishment of some basic reforms.
But Alamgir said it is a continued process and the BNP was committed to reforms.
The BNP secretary general said “there is no question of holding local government elections before the national parliamentary election. Our demand is for the national election first”.
Alamgir said the last three national elections could not be held properly, and the people want to ensure a democratic transition through elections.
Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 last year when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League’s 16-year regime.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
But this was for the first time that the BNP, visibly the largest organised political party in Bangladesh now, came with a tougher stance over the demand for an early election.
Zia, who has previously served thrice as premier, is currently in London for treatment with critical health issues while her son Rahman is also in the British capital as a process was underway to settle several legal cases lodged against him.
An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026. PTI AR GSP GSP
