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(Bloomberg) — Bangladesh will hold national elections in February as the interim government comes under pressure to restore political stability following former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s shock ouster last year.
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The South Asian nation’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus announced this in a televised speech marking the collapse of Hasina’s government, which was marred by allegations of human rights violations, rigged elections and corruption, during its 15 years in power.
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“On behalf of the interim government, I will send a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, requesting that the Election Commission arrange for the national election to be held in February 2026, before the holy month of Ramadan,” Yunus said. “We will provide all possible support and cooperation to ensure that the election is fair, peaceful, and festive.”
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Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, best known for pioneering microcredit loans to the poor, took over the governance of the country after Hasina fled to India. His one-year in power too has seen violence and demonstrations, along with demands for a free and fair election.
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“No one is in any doubt that Yunus’s interim government faces enormous challenges, but more needs to be done now to ensure a real and lasting change in Bangladesh’s human rights situation,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a statement last week.
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In the last one year, Yunus’s government has banned Hasina’s Awami League party under the anti-terrorism law. A trial at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, prosecuting Hasina for a litany of crimes, is underway.
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India has been sheltering Hasina since she fled Dhaka last year. On the sidelines of a regional summit in April, Yunus reiterated his country’s demand to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for her extradition.
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With one of the major political parties banned, the expected players in the upcoming elections would be the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami and the student-led National Citizen Party – founded by the organizers of the protest movement which overthrew Hasina.
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The new government will also face significant challenges in rebuilding the nation’s fragile economy. Bangladesh has a loan program with the International Monetary Fund, largely to finance critical imports, such as fuel, food and raw materials, and to settle energy bills. In June, the IMF approved another tranche of $1.3 billion in funding, contingent on currency and tax reforms.
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