Bangladesh to hold elections in April 2026, says interim leader Muhammad Yunus

The country saw a student-led uprising which forced the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country in August last year.

Dhaka: Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Friday said national elections will be held by the first half of April 2026 amid demands from major political parties to hold polls by December.

"Based on this announcement, the Election Commission will provide a detailed roadmap for the elections at an appropriate time," he said during a televised address to the nation on the eve of the Eid-ul-Adha festival.

Yunus, who took charge after the toppling of the former premier Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August last year, said that the government’s key responsibility is to hold a clean, peaceful, festive, and inclusive election.

“Our goal is to prevent future crises. That requires institutional reform. Without ensuring good governance in the institutions directly linked to the electoral process, all the sacrifices made by students and citizens will be in vain,” the 84-year-old Nobel Laureate said.

Yunus said his administration took over to carry out three mandates “justice, reform and elections”.

"I have repeatedly said that this election will be held between December and June next year. The government is doing whatever is necessary to create an environment conducive to elections in the country during this period," he said.

Yunus said he expected the reforms and justice issues would reach an “acceptable stage” ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan next year, which is to be observed from mid-February to mid-March 2026.

The interim government refers to the “justice” issue as the trial of leaders and officials of deposed prime minister Hasina’s now disbanded Awami League and her government that was ousted in a violent movement led by the Students against Discrimination (SAD) on August 5, 2024.

Yunus, who was in Paris at that time, flew from the French capital to take charge of the interim administration as its chief adviser three days later.

A large part of the leadership of the SAD floated the National Citizen Party (NCP) with Yunus’s blessings in February this year.

Hasina, who now lives in India, and most of her senior colleagues in the party and government are in jail or fled the country as the interim government accused them of committing crimes against humanity, which may lead to capital punishment.

The deposed premier and a number of Awami League leaders and officials of the past government, however, are being tried in absentia in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal for their role in the crackdown of last year’s uprising when hundreds of people were killed.

Yunus said with regards to the trial of crimes against humanity – “which is our collective responsibility towards the martyrs of the July mass uprising - we will be able to see visible progress” ahead of the polls.

Yunus’s announcement came amid mounting pressure on him to hold the election by December from former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and several other groups while the student-led NCP and several rightwing groups said the polls must wait until the “reforms” and “justice” were done.

The interim government was visibly in discord with the army as well over the polls with its chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who on May 21 said the national election should be held by December this year as “Bangladesh needs political stability”.

“This is only possible through an elected government, not by unelected decision-makers," The Daily Star and other newspapers quoted him as saying.

Yunus on Friday said he was aware that “there is great interest among political parties and the public” about the election deadline but it was important to remember that Bangladesh was plunged into “deep crisis since its 1971 independence due to flawed elections”.

“Through repeated accumulation of power through flawed election, a political party turned into a barbaric fascist," he said in an oblique reference to Awami League, and added that the nation identified as “criminals” the organisers of those elections.

Yunus said a “truly representative parliament” would be formed in the country "after a century and a half” with the upcoming polls when a huge group of young people would get the opportunity to vote for the first time in their lives.

The interim government chief simultaneously asked all to remain alert against efforts of the ousted regime to hit back with its venom to disrupt the justice, reform and election process.