People are “disappointed” by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s announcement to carry elections in April 2026, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) stated on Saturday (June 7, 2025), reiterating the social gathering’s demand for polls by December this yr.
“People’s victory was achieved through the immense sacrifices made by students and the masses during the July uprising. But the unwarranted delay in arranging the election has disappointed and angered the people,” Dhaka Tribune quoted the social gathering as saying in a press release.
The assertion stated the BNP’s nationwide standing committee, in an emergency digital assembly, reiterated its proposal to carry the election by December this yr, bearing in mind Ramzan, secondary and better secondary or equal examinations, and climate circumstances.
The assembly, presided over by BNP performing chairman Tarique Rahman, was convened following the chief adviser’s announcement that ignored the aspirations of a nation striving to reclaim its proper to vote by way of extended struggles.
“The people of this country, deprived of their basic voting rights for almost a decade and a half, have continued their struggle to restore democracy through voting, despite being disappeared, murdered, imprisoned, injured, and tortured,” it stated.
“The meeting believes the people of the country may be rightly concerned about the possibility of a free and fair election under this government.” The BNP standing committee noticed that holding the election in early April might result in problems, each resulting from antagonistic climate circumstances and the challenges of conducting campaigns and election-related actions throughout Ramadan, which can finally be used as grounds for deferring the polls.
It stated the chief adviser’s tackle didn’t present any clear justification as to why holding the election by December wouldn’t be possible.
It stated Yunus in his speech touched upon points like ports and corridors — subjects that didn’t fall inside the interim authorities’s three mandates – justice, reform and elections.
“The meeting expressed anger at his choice of words in the speech, which crossed the limits of political decorum,” the assertion stated.
Mr. Yunus, who took cost after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime in August final yr, stated the interim authorities’s key duty was to carry a clear, peaceable, festive, and inclusive election.
Mr. Yunus’s announcement comes amid mounting strain from former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s BNP and a number of other different teams to carry the election by December.
The student-led NCP and a number of other rightwing teams, nevertheless, stated the polls should wait till the “reforms” and “justice” have been completed.
Published – June 07, 2025 11:18 pm IST
