It’s been almost nine months since Dr. Muhammad Yunus took over the job of chief advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government, against the backdrop of a student-led people’s uprising in July-August 2024 that ended Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decade-long authoritarian rule.
A Nobel Peace Laureate and recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, Yunus is also widely known as the “banker of the poor” for his micro-credit model. He had sound credentials when he took over the onerous task of steering Bangladesh out of authoritarian rule and unrest.
He has done a reasonable job of bringing back some stability in the country. He has publicly said that he will hold elections between December 2025 and June 2026. However, the major opposition parties want a firmer commitment to an election date from Yunus.
There are a number of reasons why Yunus should seriously think of steering Bangladesh toward elections soon.
Firstly, Bangladesh is seeing a political schism deepen over the question of reform and elections. Yunus has set up several commissions that submitted their reform proposals. Supporters of reforms are mostly either part or aligned with the Yunus government, including the newly emerged students’ party. They argue that without some reforms, the state would revert to Hasina’s authoritarianism.
On the other hand, the country’s biggest opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), argues that reform is an ongoing process. It is not a matter of a year or two, after which elections can be held. They see Yunus’ reforms as a tactic for delaying elections. A growing mistrust between Yunus, students and the BNP is hard to miss. This mistrust may create problems for Yunus down the line, as there is the likelihood of street protests and battles between opposing parties in the coming days.
Secondly, though Yunus’s image remains largely clean, there are growing reports about alleged corruption in his government. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives of Bangladesh which is run by a student leader-turned-adviser, Asif Mahmud, and the Ministry of Health, which is overseen by adviser Nurjahan Begum, have been in the news in this regard.
A former assistant private secretary to the adviser Asif Mahmud, and a former private secretary of health adviser Nurjahan Begum are also facing allegations of corruption and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is looking into these cases.
More recently, when a U.K.-based Bangladeshi journalist, Zulkarnain Saer, wrote on Facebook that Asif Mahmud’s father registered as a contractor in the sports ministry that his son oversees, Asif issued a public apology and sought to downplay the issue. “My father may not have understood the issue of conflict of interest,” he said.
It has led to public disillusionment with Yunus’ interim administration.
As Shahidul Alam, a journalist who was persecuted during Hasina’s rule, pointed out in a post on Facebook, “this is what our brave student leaders are now doing. Dad obtain’s [sic] tender from son’s ministry. Tip of the iceberg?”
In January, the World Bank had projected a 4.1 percent GDP growth for the Bangladeshi economy. More recently, it predicted a mere 3.3 percent growth for the fiscal 2024-25, ending on June 30, the slowest growth rate in 36 years.
Despite this, it is a fact that things are slowly looking up. Yunus has brought the economy back from the verge of collapse. He has been able to push back against rising prices during the month of Ramadan, which put many struggling Bangladeshis at ease.
Yunus has also put a firm leash on law enforcement agencies, which ran amok during Hasina’s rule by engaging in grave human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and running chains of illegal secret prisons across the country. His government has arrested many former senior police and security officials for their alleged involvement in human rights violations and corruption.
Yunus has shown political maturity by holding Hasina and her family members accountable by inviting the U.N. human rights team to investigate the former prime minister’s conduct during the uprising. Following a thorough investigation, the U.N. team has found that Hasina did engage in serious crimes that may be tantamount to crimes against humanity. This has tarnished the image of Hasina, who is in hiding in India.
Yunus’ government has also opened investigations and issued an arrest warrant against Hasina’s niece, Tulip Siddiq, who was a senior minister in Keir Starmer’s government in the U.K. The intense media scrutiny it generated in Siddiq’s affairs in the U.K. forced her to step down.
On the international front, too, Yunus has largely done well. He has visited China and sealed several deals, engaged with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, and convinced the U.S. administration to support his government, too.
However, with tensions between the student-led party National Citizens Party (NCP) and the BNP rising as well as allegations of corruption about his government advisers coming out in the public domain, his legitimacy in the eyes of the people will likely erode.
Besides, Yunus is 84 years old. His best bet to protect his legacy is to avail a safe exit by holding a free and fair election and facilitating a peaceful transition to a democratically elected political government, which would have more legitimacy than his interim administration and be in a better position to move the country forward.