Weeks ahead of the national elections in Bangladesh, the nation's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a scathing attack on the interim chief, Muhammad Yunus. Labelling him as an “usurer, a money launderer, a plunderer, and a corrupt, power-hungry traitor,” Hasina alleged Yunus has bled Bangladesh “dry with his all-consuming paradigms, staining the soul of the motherland.”
In her speech from Delhi, Sheikh Hasina said that the entire nation must rise united and "galvanized by the spirit of our great Liberation War in this grave hour".
She made the comments in an audio message played at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi, on Friday, 23 January.
When elections will be held in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh is set to undergo parliamentary elections on February 12, 2026.
Last year, in May, the Bangladesh Election Commission suspended the registration of the Hasina-led Awami League as a party. The Interim Government has also banned all activities by the Awami League.
During her speech on Friday, Sheikh Hasina alleged that since August 5, 2024, when she was forced out of Bangladesh, democracy had effectively been driven into exile.
Bangladesh stands today “at the edge of an abyss, a nation battered and bleeding, navigating one of the most perilous chapters in its history,” said Hasina.
Hasina was removed from power in August 2024 amid widespread protests, after which an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge.
“The homeland won through the supreme Liberation War under the leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is now ravaged by the monstrous onslaught of extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators. Our once serene and fertile land has been reduced to a wounded, blood-soaked landscape. In truth, the entire country has become a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death,” said the ousted PM.
Bangladesh kicks off election campaign
On Thursday, 22 January, campaigning began for Bangladesh's elections. The polls would be the first since the 2024 uprising ended the autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina.
Campaigning for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election formally kicked off following the allocation of election symbols and confirmation of final candidates, marking the start of full-scale political activity ahead of the voting next month.
European Union election observers say the vote will be the “biggest democratic process of 2026,” AFP reported.
