Bangladesh’s interim leader has refused to give a timeframe for elections after his autocratic predecessor is ousted from power, saying reforms are needed ahead of the election in an interview published on Tuesday.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s “chief adviser” following the student-led uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is leading a temporary administration facing what he has called the “extremely difficult” challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
In an interview published by the Prothom Alo newspaper, Yunus said of his caretaker government, “None of us aims to stay for a long time.”
“Reforms are important,” he said. “If you say hold elections then we are ready to hold elections. But it would be wrong to hold elections first.”
Hasina’s 15-year rule witnessed widespread human rights abuses, including mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks before his ouster from power, according to a preliminary UN report, which said the figure was likely lower.
His government was accused of politicizing the courts and the civil service, as well as holding unilateral elections to erode democratic checks on his power.
Yunus said he inherited a “completely broken” system of public administration that required sweeping changes to prevent a return to autocracy in the future.
“Reforms mean we will not allow a repeat of what happened in the past,” he said.
‘Write whatever you want’
Yunus also rejected criticism of several politicians, senior police officers and other Hasina loyalists arrested on murder charges following the ouster of his government.
The arrests have led to allegations that Yunus’s caretaker government will politically prosecute senior figures in Hasina’s regime.
But Yunus said his intention was that any criminal trials initiated against those arrested would remain free from government interference.
“Once the judicial system is reformed, issues will emerge about who will be prosecuted, how justice will be administered,” he said.
At least 25 journalists, considered biased against her government by Hasina’s opponents, have been arrested for alleged violence against protesters since her fall.
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned the arrests as “systematic judicial harassment.”
But Yunus insisted that he wanted media freedom.
He told the newspaper, “Write as you wish.”
“Criticize. Unless you write, how will we know what is or isn’t happening?”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)