With Awami League banned, Yunus announces February election in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Bangladesh's interim leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Muhammad Yunus, has announced that the country’s parliamentary elections are planned for February. In a televised address to the nation, Yunus said he would ask the Election Commission to organise the election in February, coinciding with the first anniversary of the exile of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina has been in exile since August 5 of the previous year after fleeing the country in the face of a student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Election Commission will set the official date for the election.

Yunus had previously suggested that elections might take place in April, but key political players, mainly the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and its allies, demanded an earlier poll in February.

The Yunus-led government has also banned Hasina's Awami League party, and the Election Commission has cancelled its registration, preventing it from contesting unless the ban is lifted.

With inputs from AP