'Politicians are very impatient': Yunus sets 2026 deadline for Bangladesh general elections

Yunus took charge after the toppling of the former premier Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government's regime in August last year.

Amid former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) demanding elections by year end, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus said that the nation’s next general election could take place anytime between December 2025 and June 2026.

Bangladesh’s interim government advisor, currently on an official trip to Japan, made the announcement while addressing a public gathering in Tokyo.

“When elections take place an elected government takes over responsibility and we hand it over to them. People are insisting to tell them when the elections would be because the politicians are very impatient, to get to their seats of power. So, I have been promising them for some time. It could be in December this year or at the latest June of 2026, so six months gap, depending on how fast we can do the reforms,” Yunus said. “If the reforms are slow and accomplish little then we have a longer time. And the longer time cannot continue endlessly. Must finish it up by June 2026. So this is the timeline we are working on.”

BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman alleged that the government’s “delay tactics” in staging elections and push for “so-called reforms” were part of a broader plan to derail democratic processes. "In the past, all caretaker governments held fair elections within three months. Today, it's been over 10 months and yet, the government has not even announced the date of the election," Rahman said.

Yunus took charge after the toppling of the former premier Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government's regime in August last year.

Senior BNP leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told the party’s youth rally that there was no scope to delay polls on the plea for reforms.

He said that even if political parties lacked consensus on reform issues as propagated, the next elected government would carry on the required reforms.

“If the justice process remains incomplete, BNP will take the responsibility to complete it,” he said, expressing the party’s strong confidence about its possible victory in the elections.

Last week, Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also piled on the pressure by calling for elections by December and airing dissatisfaction over the political situation.

Zaman, along with the navy and air force chiefs, met Yunus last week and reportedly reiterated their call for an election by December this year to allow an elected government to take charge.