Dhaka [Bangladesh], June 9 : The Bangladesh Awami League on Monday expressed deep concern over UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's reportedly scheduled meeting with Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, the party said in a statement.
"The Awami League has today expressed deep concern over UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's reportedly scheduled meeting with Muhammad Yunus, the self-declared Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, warning that any formal meeting lends legitimacy to an unelected and unconstitutional administration," said the Awami League statement posted on its Facebook page.
A formal letter from the Awami League's UK branch has been sent to Downing Street, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the King's Foundation, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, urging British officials not to unwittingly launder Yunus's administration, just as Bangladesh's crisis deepens, it added.
Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus is going on a bilateral official visit to the United Kingdom from June 10 to 13, 2025. During the visit, the Chief Adviser is expected to have an audience with King Charles III of the United Kingdom. The Chief Adviser is also likely to hold a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during the visit.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student-led uprising in August last year. She is now living in India in self-imposed exile. After Sheikh Hasina's fall, an interim government was formed under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Ahead of the UK visit, Muhammad Yunus announced that the national election will be held in the first half of April 2026. The announcement of the national election is a major development for Bangladesh politics after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August 2024.
The Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman had said on May 21 that the national election should be held by December this year, The Daily Star reported.
Yunus said in his address that after one and a half decades, a truly representative parliament will be formed in the country. He urged the people of the country "to obtain specific commitments" from all political parties and candidates that they will approve without any change, in the first session of the next parliament, the reforms on which consensus has been reached, the report said.
He also reminded the people of the country that this election is not just about peaceful elections. It is an election to build a 'New Bangladesh'.
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