National polls set for next February, says Bangladesh's interim leader

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday said that the next national elections will be held in February 2026, revising his previous announcement from April.

“I will write to the chief election commissioner to arrange an election in the first half of February 2026, before Ramadan comes,” Yunus said in an address to the nation marking the first anniversary of the uprising last July that ousted the government of Sheikh Hasina.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan next year is due to start in mid-February.

“We will begin the process of handing over responsibility to an elected government,” he added.

The country’s citizens didn’t enjoy the proper right to vote in the last 15 years of the Hasina administration, he said, adding that people “want to vote with great joy, including our pending joy.”

He also said that his interim administration wants to ensure arrangements for expatriate voters to cast their votes for the first time.

At the remembrance program in the capital, he made a declaration suggesting constitutional recognition of last year's uprising.

The student-led uprising toppled the 15-year rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina fled to India last August, where she remains in exile.