Guwahati: A prominent adviser to Muhammad Yunus’s interim government in Bangladesh has announced that the Awami League, led by deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, will not be allowed to participate in future elections.
Mahfuz Alam, a key leader of the Anti-Discrimination Movement, which played a pivotal role in the mass uprising that ousted Hasina’s regime in August 2024, made the statement on Saturday.
Speaking at a rally in central Chandpur district, Alam emphasised that the upcoming elections would only feature pro-Bangladesh groups.
He stated, “The elections will be contested among pro-Bangladesh parties only,” adding that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islam, and other similar groups would continue to play a role in the country’s politics.
Alam, a de facto minister in Yunus’s interim government, made it clear that the rehabilitation of the Awami League would not be permitted.
“Awami League’s rehabilitation will not be allowed in this country,” he asserted.
Alam further stated that no elections would be held until key reforms were implemented to restructure institutions that he claimed had been destroyed by the “fascist Hasina government.”
He also noted that the timeline for reforms and elections would be contingent on the necessary changes taking place first.
Yunus appointed Alam as a special assistant, and later an adviser, in his interim government.
Yunus had previously referred to Alam as the “main brain” behind the student-led movement that successfully toppled Hasina’s administration.
Since the fall of the Awami League in August 2024, most of its leaders, including Hasina’s cabinet members, have either been imprisoned on charges ranging from murder to other criminal offenses, or are in hiding.
The BNP, however, has expressed its opposition to banning any political party.
The party has indicated its willingness to support the Awami League’s continued existence in Bangladesh’s political landscape, provided minimal reforms are made.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir recently stated that reforms by the interim government could take up to 10 years, and warned against the prolonged tenure of an unelected government.
As discussions about a potential youth-led political party continue to swirl, BNP has raised concerns that the interim government could lose credibility if its advisers form a new political party while in power.
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In a Facebook post, Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan, a key member of the Anti-Discrimination Movement and adviser to Local Government, Youth, and Sports, mentioned that debates about advancing welfare policies would be a focal point.
Similarly, Information Affairs Adviser Nahid Islam, another leader in the student movement, hinted that if necessary, government advisers would resign from their posts to form a new party and contest future elections.
Yunus has previously stated that Bangladesh’s next general elections could take place by the end of 2025 or in the first half of 2026, depending on political consensus and the extent of required reforms.
