DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh’s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to “prevent the return of authoritarianism”.
“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organise free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” the interim government said in a statement after a week of political crisis during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka.
The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August 2024, ending her 15-year rule.
The caretaker government is led by chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Yunus said he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections, which are due by June 2026 at the latest.
“If the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps,” the caretaker government said, without giving further details.
Yunus is due to hold talks on Saturday with key political parties who have protested against the government this month.
The statement said the government had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements”, which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.
Yunus’s team has confirmed he will meet leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Both parties have protested against the government.
No agenda has been released but the BNP, seen as the front-runners in elections, are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.
According to Bangladeshi media, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.
They would be the first elections since Hasina fled to India, where she remains in self-imposed exile in defiance of an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters during which at least 1,400 people were killed.
Earlier, a senior cabinet member has said Yunus must stay on to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
“For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special assistant to Yunus and head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, posted on Facebook.
“The Chief Adviser is not going to step down. He does not hanker after power,” he added. The post was later deleted.
Earlier on Thursday Bangladesh’s local media reported that the interim leader had expressed a desire to resign if political parties failed to fully support his caretaker administration.
“He wanted to tender his resignation, but his cabinet members persuaded him not to,” one source said as quoted by local media on condition of anonymity.
The latest crisis unfolded after thousands of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters rallied in Dhaka on Wednesday in the first major protest against the interim government.
Protesters demanded that Yunus set a definitive date for elections, although he has already pledged that polls will be held no later than June next year.
Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP) — a political group formed by students who led last year’s uprising and previously part of Yunus’s cabinet — met with the interim leader on Thursday evening.
“They spoke about the current political situation,” NCP senior leader Ariful Islam Adeeb told reporters.
“The Chief Adviser said he is reconsidering whether he can continue his duties under the current circumstances.” However, Islam “urged him to remain in office,” Adeeb added.
Meanwhile, Shafiqur Rahman, head of Jamaat-e-Islami has called on Yunus to convene an all-party meeting to resolve the political deadlock, according to a party official.
