Bangladesh to announce national election date on December 11

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DHAKA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s Election Commission will announce on Thursday the date of parliamentary elections scheduled for February, a commission official said, after a student-led uprising toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.

Bangladesh has been governed by an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus since August last year, when long-serving Hasina fled to India in the face of deadly street protests against her government.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin will announce the election schedule in a national broadcast at 6:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), senior Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters.

A national referendum on implementing the so-called ‘July Charter’, a state reform plan drafted in the aftermath of the unrest, is also expected to be held on the same day.

The charter proposes wide-ranging changes to state institutions, including curbing executive powers, strengthening the independence of the judiciary and election authorities, and preventing the misuse of law-enforcement agencies.

Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party is widely seen as the frontrunner in the upcoming polls, competing alongside the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which has returned to electoral politics after the interim government eased restrictions. 

Jamaat, Bangladesh’s biggest Islamic party, could not contest elections after a 2013 court ruling that its registration as a political party conflicted with the country’s secular constitution. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of 173 million people.

Hasina’s Awami League, which has been barred from contesting the election, has warned of unrest if the ban is not lifted.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by YP Rajesh and Michael Perry)