Letter from Dhaka
from Our Own Correspondent
O N 1 September, Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government, met with chief of army staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman to reaffirm that he will stand aside after holding a general election in February 2026.
This came after polite but pointedly public advice from the army chief to Yunus to quash rumours that parties predicted to lose out in the election were scheming to extend Yunus’s tenure to further their own interests.
It is no surprise our perennially dysfunctional politics would prove too much to reform for an 85-year-old Nobel laureate unexpectedly thrust into power after the killing of more than 800 unarmed demonstrators in July 2024 inflamed the popular uprising that forced the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country.