Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday said preparations were underway to stage general elections by December as nationwide defacement over the past week triggered the interim government under Chief Muhammad Yunus to approve the proposal.
The EC’s statement follows Yunus’s assurance to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to conduct elections by December. Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah said, We are preparing for the national elections in December.”
He delivered the statement after the meeting with diplomats of 17 western and other countries along with the United Nations and European Union (EU) representatives.
“Instead of local government elections, as recommended by a government-appointed commission, the national election is the priority, Sanaullah said. He said the chief adviser provided two deadlines, but “we are preparing for the first date.”
U.N. resident representative Stefan Liller, who attended the meeting, said the United Nations expected the upcoming elections to be the best in Bangladesh’s history and “we are supporting the EC to conduct a free and fair election.” He, however, refused to comment on the obstacles of holding such elections, saying, “That is not for me to comment on.”
On Monday, Chief Adviser Yunus affirmed Zia’s BNP to hold elections by December as per the party’s request of the quickest possible schedule, referring to reasons of degraded law and order conditions and the decayed economic conditions.
“Yunus informed us that the government is working to conduct the election by December,” BNP secretary general Mirja Fakhrul Islam Alamgir informed after a meeting with the chief adviser on Monday.
Yunus assumed the responsibility of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8, 2024, three days after the eviction of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime in an uprising led by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
