Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League rejects February 12 poll schedule, calls Yunus-led govt ‘illegal and biased’

Awami League rejects Bangladesh’s February 12 election schedule

The Bangladesh Awami League rejected the national election schedule announced by the country’s interim administration, accusing the Muhammad Yunus-led government and its Election Commission of being “illegal,” “biased,” and incapable of holding a credible vote.

In a sharply worded statement issued from the party headquarters in Dhaka, the Awami League said it had “closely reviewed the election schedule announced by the illegal, occupying, killer-fascist Yunus clique’s illegal Election Commission,” asserting that under the current circumstances “it is impossible to ensure a fair and normal environment where transparency, neutrality, and the people’s will can be reflected.”

The party’s registration was earlier suspended, effectively barring it from contesting the upcoming polls. The Awami League said the election schedule had been crafted “with the deliberate intention of excluding it from the political process,” warning that “attempting to hold an election while excluding the Bangladesh Awami League, the party that led the Liberation War along with other political parties and the majority of the population, is a scheme to push the country and the nation into a deep crisis.”

Positioning itself as Bangladesh’s most historically rooted political force, the party underscored that it has contested 13 national elections since its founding, “winning 9 of them and forming the government.”

It reiterated that elections remain “the measure of public popularity” and described itself as an “election-oriented party” with “the strength, courage, and capacity to stand before the people.”

The Awami League called for the immediate withdrawal of all restrictions imposed on it, including the “fabricated cases” against Sheikh Hasina, party leaders, and supporters.

It also demanded the unconditional release of all political prisoners and insisted that the “current deceitful occupying government must be replaced with a neutral caretaker government to hold a free and participatory election.”

Concluding its statement, the party said it “rejects the announced election schedule that excludes the representatives of the majority of the country’s people,” signing off with the slogans “Joy Bangla” and “Joy Bangabandhu.”

Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin announced that Bangladesh will hold its next general election on February 12, 2026, the first national vote since Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a student-led uprising in August 2024, ending her 15-year rule.

The CEC described the February vote as the country’s first-ever “twin polls,” with balloting taking place for all 300 parliamentary seats and for the charter on the same day.

Alongside rejecting the election schedule, the Awami League also announced a countrywide programme of protests. Demonstrations will be held after Friday prayers on December 12, followed by a morning and evening lockdown across Bangladesh on December 13.