Bangladesh will celebrate the elections in February 2026, the interim leader Muhammad Yunus said on Tuesday, the first surveys since a massive uprising beat the government last year.
“On behalf of the interim government, I will write a letter to the main election commissioner requesting that the elections are organized before Ramazan in February 2026,” Yunus said in a transmission on the first anniversary of former Primos Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Yunus, 85, leads the caregiver’s government as his main advisor to the elections, and said he will resign after the vote.
“We will go to the final and more important phase after pronouncing this speech to you, and that is the transfer of power to a chosen government,” he said.
Yunus had previously said that the elections would take place in April, but the key political parties have been demanding that they keep them before and before the month of Ramazan.
“He urges everyone to pray for us so that we can celebrate a fair and soft choice, allowing all citizens to move successfully in the construction of a ‘new Bangladesh’,” he added.
“In the name of the Government, we will extend all the support necessary to ensure that the elections are free, peaceful and of spirit celebration.”
In a previous direction, he said: “Together, we will build a Bangladesh where tyranny will never rise again.”
He turned tribute to those who sacrificed their lives.
“However, fallen autocrats and their selfish allies remain active,” he added, urging the unity to protect the profits from the uprising while their government has reform conversations with political parties and civil society.
His interim government had launched radical reforms, he added, while the judgments for those responsible for the “murders of July” progressed rapidly.
The police were on a maximum alert throughout the capital, with armored vehicles patrolling the streets to deter any attempt of the forbidden Awami League of Hasina to interrupt the events of the day.
“Let this anniversary not be a day of retrospection, but a shout of meeting for a brighter tomorrow,” said Hasina in an open letter to the people of Bangladesh, adding that he had never resigned from his duties as prime minister.
“Bangladesh has overcome adversity before, and we will rise again, stronger, more united and more determined to build a democracy that really serves its people.”
The Julio Declaration formally recognizes the uprising led by 2024 students and the change of the authoritarian government to democratic renewal.
Despite some opposition, it is supported by the main political groups, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Supporters see the letter as a basis for institutional reform; Critics have warned that their impact could be largely symbolic in the absence of a legal framework or a parliamentary consensus.
