THE interim government of the peace Nobel laureate professor Muhammad Yunus has completed one year in office today. Three days after the Awami League鈥檚 authoritarian government of Sheikh Hasina had been ousted from power in the face of a massive popular uprising on August 5, 2024, Yunus took over with three pronounced objectives: the trial of the League leaders responsible for killing some 1,500 democracy protesters during the July-August uprising, democratic reforms of the state and governance and the holding of free and fair general elections to transfer power to elected representatives of the people. Initially, there was no time frame for the completion of the interim agenda.
While the installation of the interim government raised profound hope among democratically oriented sections of the people for a bright future, with the passage of time, it appeared that, given the poor level of political acumen of most members of Yunus鈥檚 interim cabinet, it was not adequately capable of discharging the difficult duties that history had entrusted it with. No matter how sincere the cabinet is about meeting the historic challenges that the country is confronted with, its poor performance has been manifest in its failure to carry out any democratic reforms in the age-old bureaucratic governance over the past one year, not to mention its inability to restore law and order and contain social instability. On the political front, the national consensus commission has succeeded in forging a negotiation among political parties on some, not adequate though, important constitutional reforms, which, if implemented, would help democratise parliamentary practices to some extent, but it has not yet been resolved as to how and who would implement the agreed reforms. As for trial of the July-August mass killing of the League leaders, the government has filed cases against many a League leader, but it has damaged the cause to a significant extent by implicating many members of the pro-League intelligentsia in murder cases. The phenomenon not only unduly lengthens the trial process but also affects the credibility of the charges. Under the circumstance, came the question of elections at the earliest and subsequently, following growing political pressure particularly from the largest political organisation, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Yunus resolved to hold general elections by mid-February 2026. This is, indeed, a pragmatic political decision.
However, a mere announcement of holding general elections is not enough to practically hold free and fair national elections, particularly when some political parties and groups as well as some over-ambitious members of the interim cabinet are for lingering the election process. Under this circumstance, the interim government needs to realise that for it to deliver free and fair elections, it would require genuine cooperation from political parties, the civil administration and the armed forces already deployed in the field with magistracy powers, some of whom do not appear to be in great relation with the incumbents. The incumbents, therefore, would be well advised to forge a better understanding with the forces concerned for the sake of national interests, not to mention that of itself.
