Bangladesh Chief Adviser announces national election in first half of April 2026
"I am announcing to the countrymen today that the next national elections will be held sometime in the first half of April 2026. Based on this announcement, the Election Commission will provide you with a detailed roadmap for the elections in due course", said Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, in an address to the nation through state television, BTV, on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.
The Chief Adviser had said until now that he would hold elections by June 2026. However, political parties, including the BNP, were expecting a roadmap for the elections by December of this year.
According to The Daily Star, the National Citizen Party had been pushing for the election to be held after reforms are completed.
The announcement of the national election is a major development for Bangladesh politics after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August 2024.
Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman, had said on May 21 that the national election should be held by December this year, The Daily Star reported.
Yunus said in his address that after one-and-a-half decades, a truly representative parliament will be formed in the country.
He urged the people of the country "to obtain specific commitments" from all political parties and candidates that they will approve without any change, in the first session of the next parliament, the reforms on which consensus has been reached, the report said.
"You [people] will make them [political parties] promise that they will never compromise on the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national dignity of Bangladesh and will not sell the country's interests to any foreign power," he said, according to the report.
He also reminded the people of the country that this election is not just about peaceful elections. It is an election to build a 'New Bangladesh'.
"In this election, there will be only known parties. They will have their known symbols. But the voter has to find out who the candidates behind this symbol are to what extent they are ready to build a 'New Bangladesh'. How committed are they?" he said, according to the report.
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