Election Uncertainty Continues in Bangladesh

In a press conference on Tuesday, February 11, Bangladesh’s Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah declared that the commission is preparing for the national elections by December.

Though this is the first official confirmation of the national elections since the fall of Sheikh Hasina government in August last year, uncertainties remain.

Sanaullah’s declaration was made following a meeting with the representatives of Bangladesh’s international development partners including the UNDP. He claimed he is ready to conduct elections as per the wishes of the interim government.

The interim government led by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, has maintained that it was in no hurry and elections could happen only after the political reforms it has initiated were complete. However, most of the political parties in the country have expressed desire for early elections.

Feeling the pressure Yunus had expressed in December that elections can be held next December with limited reforms or by July 2026 with full reforms, still not certain.

“We said we have to prepare by assuming the earliest date. Our position is still unchanged,” referring to Yunus’ statement about two dates of probable elections in the country.

Yunus reportedly reiterated his government’s resolve to hold the elections in December 2025 in his meeting with Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leadership on Monday. However, BNP leadership also expressed their apprehensions that there are groups in the country which do not want elections now and are creating pressure on the government to delay the elections, the Daily Star reported on Wednesday.

According to reports in Bangladeshi media, the students who led the anti-quota agitation against the Sheikh Hasina government, forcing her to resign and leave the country in August, have decided to form a political party and need more time to prepare for the elections.

Students against Discrimination is part of the interim government with two of its representatives serving as advisors.

However, other parties are not ready to wait for an indefinite period with BNP calling the delay in the election process just to facilitate the formation of a new party “detrimental to democracy.”

According to the existing constitution of Bangladesh, elections must be held within three months after the end of an existing government. The interim government, however, has refused to adhere to that deadline claiming the country needs reforms first.

Accusations of political repression

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch last week, Mrinal Das, Awami League’s central committee member, claimed “there is no democracy in the country” and doubted if there will be an impartial election in the country, if ever, under Yunus’ leadership. He claimed Yunus is “power hungry and autocratic.”

The interim government continues to call Awami League “fascist” claiming it will not be allowed to contest the next national elections. Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, a leader of Students Against Discrimination and part of the Yunus-led interim government told the press last week that there is a consensus among all other political parties in the country to ban Awami League and his government will take steps to do the same in the coming days.

The Awami League continues to face legal repression with a large number of its leaders, former ministers, and their relatives arrested in cases related to the death of protesters during the July-August anti-quota protests. The houses and offices of the party have also been destroyed in several places. Earlier this month, the house of its founder and father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka was also dismantled by a crowd seemingly in response to a call from Students Against Discrimination.

Das accused Yunus of being primarily responsible for the attacks on the party offices, leaders, and workers, calling it barbarism and against humanity.

Bangladeshi authorities have also issued warrants for the arrest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who is currently living in exile in India.

Leaders of the leftist Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) have been imprisoned, accused of being responsible for the death of protesters. Critics of the repression say that these parties are being political persecuted only because they were part of the Awami League-led alliance.

Meanwhile, the Political Reform Committee known as the Constitutional Reform Commission constituted by the Yunus government recently conducted a survey to find out popular preferences on the political reforms in the country. According to its findings, more than 86% of the respondents demanded that elections must be held by a nonpartisan caretaker government.

In Bangladesh, national elections were held under caretaker governments until 2011. In 2011 Awami League government amended the constitution and removed that requirement. The opposition claims that those elections were rigged and not fair.