No doubt about February election: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said political parties have no doubt anymore that the next national election will be held in February 2026.

“The Chief Adviser’s speech at the United Nations on the election was quite strong, and from what he has said in recent days about it, we, the political parties, have no doubt anymore.”

”We are convinced that the election will be held in February 2026,” he said.

Earlier, Fakhrul was seen standing beside Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus while he delivered his speech at the 80th United Nations General Assembly.

Replying to a question about Jamaat-e-Islami’s campaign for proportional representation (PR), Mirza Fakhrul said, “We are not in favour of PR in the lower house, and we have also not spoken about PR in the upper house. These are issues we can discuss and resolve later.”

In his speech, the BNP leader said the Chief Adviser spoke openly about why the interim government was formed and how it took responsibility when a vacuum was created after a mass uprising last year.

“Amidst a vacuum created after the mass uprising, we, the political parties and the students, entrusted them with that responsibility,” he said.

Within one year, Fakhrul said, the interim government has tried to bring the country back from a terrible situation in politics and the economy. “These points came out clearly in his speech.”

He said Prof Yunus also spoke about how his government began the work and how, through those efforts, they tried to bring the economy back to a stable state.

The BNP leader said the Chief Adviser also talked about the demands for reforms in politics and the state structure.

He recalled BNP’s long-standing calls for political and structural reforms, citing the party’s Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Vision 2030 and acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman’s 31-point programme.

The BNP leader said their party realised the necessity of reforms as the Awami League brought the country to such a situation that it would be difficult to pull the state back up without fundamental changes-both in the state structure and in the economy.

Fakhrul praised the Chief Adviser for taking the opposition political parties to the UNGA with him. “We are very happy that, for the first time, he (the Chief Adviser) involved the opposition political parties in the government’s activities and took them to the United Nations.”

He said the main objective of the Chief Adviser was to manifest the unity of the nation through joining the UNGA with the opposition political leaders.