Bangladesh sets February election after year of political upheaval

Bangladesh prepares for a pivotal ballot arsenic the interim authorities struggles to reconstruct stableness and trust.

Bangladesh volition clasp a parliamentary predetermination connected February 12, authorities said, successful what would beryllium the country’s archetypal nationalist ballot since past year’s student-led uprising that removed erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In a televised code connected Thursday, the main predetermination commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin confirmed the day and said a nationalist referendum connected governmental reforms would besides beryllium held connected the aforesaid day.

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The announcement comes arsenic the interim medication struggles to dependable the governmental landscape. The caretaker government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has faced renewed demonstrations implicit delays to governmental and organization reforms promised aft Hasina’s removal from power.

Hasina’s enactment remains excluded from the ballot, and its leaders person warned that unrest could escalate arsenic the run gathers pace.

Yunus framed the predetermination docket arsenic a turning point, saying the state had moved person to reclaiming antiauthoritarian norms. “Bangladesh’s antiauthoritarian travel has crossed an important milestone, strengthening the caller way the federation has taken aft the historical wide uprising,” helium said.

The turbulence of the modulation sharpened connected Thursday aft President Mohammed Shahabuddin, appointed to the mostly symbolic station during Hasina’s tenure, announced helium would resign erstwhile voting concludes. He told the quality bureau Reuters helium intended to measurement speech midway done his term, saying helium had felt humiliated by the Yunus government.

Many voters are focussed connected restoring antiauthoritarian rule, reviving the captious garment-export industry, and recalibrating ties with India, which soured aft Hasina fled to India pursuing the upheaval.

Referendum connected ‘July Charter’ reforms

Election officials accidental astir 128 cardinal radical volition beryllium capable to formed ballots crossed much than 42,000 polling stations successful contests for 300 seats. The canvass volition coincide with a referendum connected the “July Charter”, a betterment blueprint drafted successful the contiguous aftermath of the uprising.

Uddin said that the ballot would find whether the Charter becomes the ground for restructuring authorities institutions.

The papers proposes reducing enforcement authority, enhancing the judiciary’s independence, strengthening the electoral commission, and stopping the governmental misuse of law-enforcement agencies.

The contention is expected to beryllium dominated by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by erstwhile Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The BNP is competing alongside Jamaat-e-Islami, which is returning to electoral authorities for the archetypal clip since a 2013 tribunal ruling barred it nether the country’s secular constitution.

A caller governmental force, the National Citizen Party, formed by student leaders who helped organise the 2024 uprising, lags behind, struggling to person its thoroughfare mobilisation into a nationwide electoral base.

The BNP has besides formally ended its longstanding confederation with Jamaat-e-Islami, presenting itself alternatively arsenic a wide and antiauthoritarian alternate successful the post-Hasina era.