Bangladesh’s Yunus urges ‘patience’ for election after 100 days in power

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus begged the country’s “patience” to prepare for much-awaited elections in a speech to the nation marking 100 days in power since a student-led revolution.

The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was appointed to lead the government as “chief adviser” on August 9, days after the student-led uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.

Yunus, a microfinance pioneer, is leading a temporary administration to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

Vowing an election commission will be formed “within a few days”, Yunus said he could not give a time frame for elections, saying it was dependent on a raft of election and constitutional reforms.

“I promise that we will hold the much-anticipated election once the necessary and essential reforms are complete,” he said in the broadcast.

“I request your patience until then. We aim to build an electoral system that will endure for decades. For this, we need some time.”

Yunus said his administration was also focused on ensuring those guilty of cracking down on the protests to oust Hasina faced justice, and said he had spoken to Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.