Kazim AlamWhen will Bangladesh go to the polls to elect a new government?
It’s the million-dollar question right now in the South Asian nation of 170 million people – and the lightning rod that is roiling the transitional government led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Yunus was installed as the head of the interim government following the ouster of an ostensibly pro-India government of Sheikh Hasina last August.
Bangladesh has seen sporadic protests over the past few weeks, with striking civil servants and schoolteachers clashing with the police and paramilitary forces.
One of the main reasons for the growing discontent is the timing of the proposed general election.
The interim government wants to delay the polls until June 2026. But key stakeholders, including the powerful military and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia, want a general election by December.
Analysts say an interim government fighting a two-pronged battle against the military and political parties is ‘unprecedented’ in Bangladesh.
“We have never seen the interim government having a tussle with the military and a major political party simultaneously… an open tussle between a (caretaker) government and the military is unprecedented,” Zahed Ur Rahman, a Dhaka-based academic and political commentator, tells TRT World.
Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman muddied the waters recently by saying that elections should be held by December.
The interim government snubbed the army chief by pointing out his failure to maintain “jurisdictional correctness”.
“The army can't meddle in politics. In today's world, no military of a civilised nation engages in politics,” a cabinet member was quoted as saying.
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt toppled the Hasina government after three weeks of protests in which 1,400 people died.
Yunus has been hailed as the “lone stabilising force” who represents Bangladesh’s best chance to pull things together until a fair election is held.
The interim government vowed to institute governance reforms and purge the political system of sympathisers of Hasina’s Awami League party, which ruled Bangladesh from 2009 to 2024 with an iron fist.
“There is a widespread perception that the government, through the newly appointed national security adviser, tried to create a situation in which the current military chief could be fired. This further escalated the tension,” says Rahman.
Except the supporters of the Awami League, most Bangladeshis supported Yunus ‘strongly’ in the initial days of the interim government, he says.
The military is not interested in taking over power as it keeps talking about a swift democratic transition, Rahman insists. But that hasn’t stopped some people, especially in urban areas, from raising questions over the military airing its views on political issues, he adds.
Fall of friendly Awami League government has put New Delhi on the diplomatic backfoot. But analysts say a turnaround is not improbable.
Why BNP wants early election
Supporters of the BNP held large-scale protests against the interim government last week for the first time.
The party expects a clear victory in the next polls as its archrival, Awami League, has recently been banned from taking part in the electoral process.
Abul Hasan, an international affairs analyst from Bangladesh currently working at Russia’s National Research University, tells TRT World that the Hasina regime ‘politicised’ every segment of society in its 16-year reign.
The mandate of the Yunus-led government is to hold free and fair elections “by implementing necessary reforms” and holding trials for the perpetrators of the “July-August (2024) genocide”.
“The government should announce a specific timeline for the election,” he says, adding that not doing so may worsen the political situation.
Hasan blamed Indian media for spreading disinformation to create unrest in Bangladesh.
Critics accuse Yunus of delaying elections only to cling to power. Yunus has warned his detractors of mobilising public support to counter “unreasonable demands” from the army and political parties.
Meanwhile, the National Citizen Party, born out of last year's deadly student-led protests, insists elections must wait until key reforms are completed.
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More than 50 years since their bitter split, Dhaka is pressing Islamabad to acknowledge historical injustices with a formal apology, financial compensation, and the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis.
The humanitarian corridor
Another point of contention in the ongoing political crisis in Bangladesh is a proposed humanitarian corridor from the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar to the neighbouring Myanmar’s Rakhine state to help the Rohingya community.
Bangladesh is hosting in Cox’s Bazar more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees who fled military crackdowns in Myanmar in August 2017.
The UN-backed humanitarian corridor is supposed to be used for aid distribution in the conflict-hit area. Myanmar’s junta blocked all supplies to corner the Arakan Army rebel group in Rakhine state, where the UN says up to two million people face the dire prospect of famine.
But the Bangladeshi army has opposed the project, citing risks to Dhaka’s sovereignty and potential foreign interference from the US and the UN.
The army called it a bloody corridor, leading Yunus to backtrack after military pressure.
“It is possible that the Bangladesh Army and the BNP are facing pressure from New Delhi, which may have compelled them to oppose the humanitarian corridor and ask for an immediate election,” says Hasan.
“The behaviour of the BNP and the army chief is questionable.”
