Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has reaffirmed that he will not remain in office beyond June 30 next year and the general election will be held before the June deadline, a senior official said on Sunday.
Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary of Chief Adviser, said that a meeting was held between Muhammad Yunus and leaders of different political parties to discuss key issues, including elections, the Daily Sun reported.
"Prof Yunus made it clear that the election would take place between December and 30 June. He said he will not stay in the chair even for a single day after 30 June next year,” Shafiqul Alam told reporters after the meeting.
Yunus told the participants that Bangladesh was in a state of war and the Awami League was trying to destabilise the country.
"We are in a state of war. After banning the Awami League, they are trying to destabilise the country. We must protect ourselves from this," Shafiqul quoted Yunus as saying.
The Chief Advisor further said that the leaders must overcome divisions and maintain consensus, adding that there was a conspiracy, both inside and outside the country.
The development comes a day after Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) asked interim government chief Muhammad Yunus to hold national elections by December 2025 and reconstitute his cabinet by removing “controversial advisers”.
BNP’s highest policy making standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain met Yunus at his official residence and asked him to announce a roadmap for holding the election and also demanded the formation of an advisory council.
Earlier this week, Muhammad Yunus told student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) leaders that he was mulling resignation as he felt “the situation is such that he cannot work, citing difficulties in working amid the failure of political parties to find common ground for change."
He reportedly expressed an identical desire to quit in a cabinet meeting earlier on Thursday, where his colleagues persuaded him not to relinquish.
