Dhaka [Bangladesh], July 10 : Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday ordered officials to complete preparations for the next general elections by December.
The Chief Adviser gave the directives during a meeting with the country's law enforcement agencies. Senior officials from Bangladesh's Ministry of Home Affairs and heads of various law enforcement agencies were present at the meeting.
"Chief Adviser has directed to complete all preparations for the elections by December", Azad Majumdar, Deputy Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser, told ANI after the meeting.
"In the next elections, 800,000 law enforcement officers will be deployed in 47,000 polling stations. Of them, 570,000 will be Ansar members and 141,000 will be police. Police will have body cameras", he added.
"Chief Adviser has ordered a random reshuffle before the election. He has also asked the officials who served in the last three controversial elections to do a little duty as possible", Majumder said.
Earlier in June, Yunus hinted at holding national elections in early February next year. In June, Muhammad Yunus held talks with Acting Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairman Tarique Rahman in London. Rahman proposed to the Chief Adviser to hold the elections before Ramzan next year.
"The Chief Adviser said that he has announced that the elections will be held by the first half of February next year. If all preparations are completed, the elections could be held even in the week before the start of Ramadan in 2026," said a joint statement issued after the talks between Yunus and Rahman.
"In that case, it will be necessary to achieve sufficient progress on reform and justice within that period," it added.
Former Bangladesh PM, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led uprising in August last year. After Sheikh Hasina's fall, an interim government was formed under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Laureate.