Desk Report:
Principal Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus said that his government is preparing to hold national elections in February next year. At the same time, it is continuing citizen-friendly reform activities to ensure transparency, accountability and the rule of law.
He said these things in his speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning local time in New York. The Principal Advisor addressed the session in Bengali.
Professor Yunus said, “We are preparing to hold national elections in February next year and are continuously continuing citizen-friendly reforms to ensure transparency, accountability and the rule of law.”
The Principal Advisor said, “Bangladesh was born in 1971 through a bloody struggle demanding equality, human dignity and social justice. But the rights for which we made great sacrifices have been repeatedly thwarted in the last five decades. Time and again, our people, led by our children, have had to make countless sacrifices to re-establish those rights.”
Dr. Yunus said, ‘Our goal was to build a democratic state structure with a balance of power, where no dictators would emerge.’
Dr. Yunus mentioned, ‘We have established 11 independent reform commissions to make necessary reforms in all nationally important areas including governance, judiciary, electoral system, public administration, law and order, anti-corruption activities, and women’s rights.’
Professor Yunus said that the commissions have recommended detailed reform programs after examining and deeply reviewing public opinion.
The Chief Advisor said, ‘To implement these reform recommendations sustainably, we have formed a National Consensus Commission, which will hold discussions with more than 30 political parties and alliances.’
Professor Yunus further said, ‘On the one-year anniversary of the July mass uprising, we stood on the same stage with the political parties and expressed a time-bound commitment to reform programs through the “July Declaration.”’
Dr. Yunus emphasized that, regardless of which party wins the popular support in the next election, there will be no more uncertainty in the implementation of the reform program.
The Chief Advisor said, “This year we celebrated the first anniversary of the July Uprising; the uprising in which our youth defeated the dictatorship. I and my colleagues were given the responsibility of fulfilling the desire to build a society free of discrimination and based on justice.”
Dr. Yunus noted, “To fulfill the aspirations of the people by rebuilding the broken state structure, comprehensive institutional reforms were needed. For us, the easy way was to reform by executive order, but we have chosen the difficult way—an inclusive and sustainable way.”
