B’desh awaits interim govt notice to scrap Awami League’s registration

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) on Sunday said it is awaiting a formal government notification to decide on scrapping the registration of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League after the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus banned the party’s activities under an anti-terrorism law.

“If the gazette is published tomorrow (Monday), we will sit and discuss before deciding on Awami League’s registration issue,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin told reporters.

According to Bangladesh law, if the Awami League’s registration with the EC is cancelled, it will be disqualified from contesting the general election, which could be held between December 2025 and June 2026.

The interim government’s Council of Advisers or the Cabinet on Saturday night slapped a ban on “all activities of Awami League”, including in cyberspace, under an anti-terrorism law.

“The official gazette notification will be issued in this regard on the next working day,” Yunus’s office said, describing it as a “statement of the Council of Advisers” or the Cabinet.

The statement said the Council decided that the ban would remain effective until the completion of the “trial of the Awami

League and its leaders in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal in the interest of protecting the country’s security and sovereignty”.

It said the decision was also taken for the security of the leaders and activists of the July 2024 uprising that eventually led to the ousting of the Awami League regime alongside the complainants

and witnesses of the trial in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

The meeting, chaired by Yunus, also amended the ICT law, allowing the tribunal to try any political party, its front organisations and affiliated bodies.

Hasina’s 16-year-long Awami League regime was toppled on August 5 last year in a student-led violent mass uprising, prompting the 77-year-old former prime minister to flee to India.