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DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader will meet multiple parties on Sunday in marathon talks as he seeks to build unity and calm intense political power struggles, party leaders and officials said.

Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections are held, has called for rival parties to give him their full support.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a student-led revolt in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

The talks come after meetings that stretched late into Saturday evening with major political parties, including those who have protested against the government this month.

“Chief adviser professor Muhammad Yunus will meet the leaders of several parties on Sunday,” his press secretary Shafiqul Alam said.

There are 54 registered political parties in Bangladesh – not including the now-banned Awami League of fugitive former leader Hasina.

Alam did not specify how many parties were invited to this round of talks.

Mamunul Haque, leader of the Islamist Khelafat-e-Majlish party, said he was attending discussions expected to focus on “the ongoing crisis.”

Zonayed Saki of the liberal Ganosamhati Andolon party said he was also attending.

After a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government led by Yunus warned on Saturday that political power struggles risked jeopardizing gains that have been made.

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement.

Microfinance pioneer Yunus, who returned from exile at the behest of protesters in August 2024, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections he has vowed will take place by June 2026 at the latest.

The caretaker government has formed multiple reform commissions providing a long list of recommendations – and is now seeking the backing of political parties.

Yunus last held an all-party meeting – to discuss efforts to overhaul Bangladesh’s democratic system – on February 15, and some parties cited frustration at the lack of contact.

But on Saturday, the government warned that it had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements,” which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.

Sources in his office and a key political ally said on Thursday that Yunus had threatened to quit, but his cabinet said he would not step down early.

Yunus on Saturday met with the the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election front-runners, who are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.

Yunus also met with leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest Islamist party, and the National Citizen Party (NCP) made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule.

NCP leader Nahid Islam warned on Saturday that rival parties were pushing for swift elections to skip reforms and “assume power,” and that he believed there were “indications” that a “military-backed government could re-emerge.”

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to “prevent the return of authoritarianism.”

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

After a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government led by Muhammad Yunus said political power struggles risked jeopardizing gains that have been made and pleaded for people to give it their full support.

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement.

Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters last year, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections that are due by June 2026 at the latest.

However, the government warned that it had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements,” which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.

Sources in his office and a key political ally said on Thursday that microfinance pioneer Yunus had threatened to quit.

“If the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps,” Saturday’s statement said, without giving further details.

Wahiduddin Mahmud, who heads the finance and planning ministry, insisted that Yunus will not step down early.

“We are going to carry out the responsibilities assigned to us,” Mahmud told reporters on Saturday. “We can’t simply abandon our duties.”

Yunus held talks on Saturday evening with key political parties, including those who have protested against the government this month.

His press secretary Shafiqul Alam insisted that the parties all had “full trust” in Yunus, with an all-party meeting scheduled for Sunday.

Yunus met leaders of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election front-runners, who are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.

“Any excuse to delay the election may open the door for the return of dictatorship,” senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said after the meeting.

“The interim government and its allies will be held responsible for such a consequence.”

Yunus has said polls could be held as early as December but that holding them later — with the deadline of June — would give the government more time for reform.

But Hossain said that reforms, justice and elections were not “mutually exclusive goals.”

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.

Bangladesh has a long history of military coups, and the army retains a powerful role.

The upcoming elections will be the first since Hasina fled to India, where she remains in self-imposed exile in defiance of an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters, during which at least 1,400 people were killed.

Shafiqur Rahman, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest religious party, said after his meeting with Yunus that he had asked for an election timetable — saying he was open to a later date if it allowed for reforms.

He also said he had sought “progress in the ongoing trials” of those from Hasina’s ousted regime.

Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP) made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule, has said he wants later elections to allow time for “fundamental reforms.”

He fears rival parties want swift elections to “assume power.”

Speaking after meeting with Yunus, he said the NCP had “demanded a specific roadmap for reforms, trials, and the election of a constituent assembly.”

Islam, an ally of Yunus who previously served in his cabinet, speaking earlier on Saturday, warned that he had seen “indications” that a “military-backed government could re-emerge — one that is anti-democratic and anti-people.”