FILE PHOTO: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia attends a rally in Dhaka October 20, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj/File Photo
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's interim government should hold general elections by August in the "greater interest of the country," the party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said on Tuesday, citing growing political and economic instability.
The interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has ruled the South Asian nation since August, when mass protests forced its then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to neighbouring India.
Yunus has said elections might be possible by the end of 2025, but only following electoral reforms.
There was no reason to delay elections any further, however, said Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the main political parties, besides Hasina's Awami League.
"BNP wants elections in the middle of this year," its secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told a press conference. "The longer the elections are delayed, the deeper the political and economic crisis will become."
The BNP is among the opposition parties pushing for earlier elections. The poll would be feasible in July or August, Alamgir added, if the Election Reform Commission submitted its report in time.
"Reform is an ongoing process," he added. "It will continue."
Hasina and her Awami League party face legal challenges, including trials for mass killings, graft, and other charges, and many of its top leaders are in hiding.
Rushing through these trials without thorough scrutiny could undermine their legitimacy, Alamgir added.
"If trials are done in a hurry, it will be questionable," he said in reply to a question.
Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed, has said in the past he was happy for elections to be held by early 2026, as suggested by the army chief, which would make for a period of 18 months since the interim government took over.
(Reporting by Dhaka bureau, Editing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Clarence Fernandez)
