{"id":75220,"date":"2025-05-22T16:13:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T11:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=75220"},"modified":"2025-05-22T19:10:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:10:28","slug":"bangladesh-army-chief-wants-elections-by-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/bangladesh-army-chief-wants-elections-by-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh Army Chief wants elections ‘By December’"},"content":{"rendered":"

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s powerful army chief<\/a> has said the first elections since the country’s former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December, local media reported and military sources confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

General Waker-Uz-Zaman was reported to have told officers on Wednesday that elections<\/a> should be held by December this year — if not earlier, according to Bangladeshi newspapers.<\/p>\n

\n

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August, with parties protesting on the streets making rafts of demands.<\/p>\n

“Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said, according to the newspapers.<\/p>\n

“The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute.”<\/p>\n

No date has been set for elections but interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.<\/p>\n

But the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the front-runners in the elections, have repeatedly demanded an election date.<\/p>\n

The BNP on Wednesday held protests in the capital, Dhaka, significant in that they for the first time demonstrated against the caretaker government.<\/p>\n

In response to a question from an officer, the army chief reportedly said: “Elections should be held by December, if not earlier.”<\/p>\n

He is also reported to have told officers to “carry out your duties with honesty and impartiality during the election”.<\/p>\n

It was Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced in August last year that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control.<\/p>\n

Days later, Waker-Uz-Zaman handed over power to Yunus, 84, who has said he will lead the caretaker government until the next elections.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant Colonel Sami-Ud-Dowla Chowdhury, the military spokesperson, confirmed that Waker-Uz-Zaman had addressed officers on Wednesday but said the “meeting was confidential”.<\/p>\n

But three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told AFP that the army chief emphasised the urgency of holding elections and said they should be held by December.<\/p>\n

Known for his calm demeanour, Waker-Uz-Zaman appeared frustrated and dissatisfied during the session, they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s powerful army chief has said the first elections since the country’s former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December, local media reported and military sources confirmed on Thursday. General Waker-Uz-Zaman was reported to have told officers on Wednesday that elections should be held by December this year — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":75221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8485,28928],"class_list":["post-75220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-elections","tag-bangladesh-army-chief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75220"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75243,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75220\/revisions\/75243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}