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EC preparing for national election as per CA's timeframe: Commissioner Masud

BANGLADESH

TBS Report

18 May, 2025, 10:00 pm

Last modified: 18 May, 2025, 10:04 pm

Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud attends a meeting with the officials concerned of the Barishal Election Commission over the voter list upgradation today (22 January). Photo: UNB

The Election Commission has started preparations to arrange the upcoming national election, scheduled to be held between December this year and June 2026 as per the timeframe given by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said today (18 May).

"We are preparing accordingly as the election will be held within the timeframe set by the chief adviser," the commissioner told reporters at the Rajshahi Circuit House conference room after a meeting with local administration and election officials.

On 25 March, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus reaffirmed that the national election will take place between December and June 2026.

"We want the upcoming election to be the most free, fair, and credible in the history of Bangladesh," Yunus said.

Https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/ec-preparing-national-election-cas-timeframe-commissioner-masud-1145731?amp

Wow, elections possible in the next 3-4 months from August onwards would be brilliant for the share price.

Can’t disagree redeye. Turns out Yunus is Hasina 2.0.

The politics of throw over governments and regimes digit. This needs to keep off the streets.

Which but, all of it 🤣

Support worked. Now where?

Pack it in 🤣 we might start going up 😗

There should have been a conference involving local businesses to promote investment — not just foreign investors. Because foreigners will say nice things about Bangladesh out of courtesy. If they’re treated well, they’ll speak positively — but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually invest.

Some foreign companies may have invested millions of dollars, but that’s not enough. Given the size of the economy, we need billions of dollars in investment. The bottom line is that if local investors don’t feel secure — if they’re just waiting for the election — then foreign investors won’t come either.

If local businesses are shrinking, if their investments are declining, then inviting foreigners won’t help. The message is: we need to fix our own house first. In other words, stability is essential. Even though Vietnam is under military rule, it has a stable environment — that’s why it attracts high investment. If local entrepreneurs are uncomfortable, foreign investors won’t come.

For the sake of the economy, law and order must be kept stable. When buildings are being demolished and shops are being looted, it does not send a positive message.

The bottom line is, what I’m trying to say is that if local investors don’t feel secure and are simply waiting for the election, then foreign investors won’t come either.

Additionally, a kind of mob culture has created disorder in society. This has caused stagnation even in the businesses that were operating, and no new investments have taken place. Consequently, the two core economic issues we started with (inflation and unemployment) have been prolonged. Unemployment has increased. Although the government hasn’t conducted its own survey, other surveys show that unemployment has indeed risen. While inflation hasn’t surged drastically, it hasn’t come down to a tolerable level either.

So, broadly speaking, there has been no improvement in these two areas. This means that in these aspects of the economy, the current government's performance has not been satisfactory. Even if the government lacked the ability to deliver something positive, it should at least have ensured that nothing negative happened.

Question: Is GDP growth on the right track?

Answer: GDP is a key issue, but whether it increases or decreases doesn’t matter much to the ordinary people — like the workers riding on Karimon or Nasimon (local transport vehicles). They just want jobs. They want to work at rice mills. At any cost, they want to increase their income. They want to afford basic meals — lentils and rice — like they used to even during the fascist regime. And now, they’re simply waiting to see when the election will take place and a new government will come. Maybe then they’ll feel that some change is possible. The government’s attention, however, has been distracted from this crucial area.

Question: What is your observation regarding the White Paper on the State of the Economy?

Answer: My observation is that after coming to power, the government focused on two things. One of them was drafting the White Paper — identifying the wrongdoings of the previous government. This is certainly a commendable effort. The White Paper was prepared very quickly. However, it has also made itself somewhat ridiculous. For example, the Governor of Bangladesh Bank stated that $17 billion was siphoned off. On the other hand, Global Financial Integrity reported that around $3–4 billion was laundered annually, and they broke it down step by step. Yet, the White Paper claims the figure is $234 billion. Where is $17 billion and where is $234 billion? This clearly shows that the White Paper has shot itself in the foot. These figures should have been cross-checked and balanced properly. This isn’t a fairy tale that can just be written based on hearsay.

Question: Why is there no investment happening in the country?

Answer: In truth, the government has had no real focus on the economy; instead, it gave leeway — or allowed — disorder to grow, especially on the social front. This has caused fear among businesspeople.

Investment was already in a state of stagnation. Private investment stands at 24%. We didn’t expect it to rise overnight. But if you look at the numbers now, you’ll see that the business community’s pa

Https://www.daily-sun.com/post/805305

Foreign investors won’t come if local peers continue to fear social instability: US professor

Daily Sun Report, Dhaka

Publish: Friday, 16 May, 2025 12:17

Foreign investors won’t come if local peers continue to fear social instability: US professor

Photo: Collected

Bangladesh’s business climate is continuing to deteriorate under the Prof Yunus-led interim government as officials are prioritizing appeasing socio-political anarchists over ensuring stability and business sustenance.

Dr Birupaksha Paul, economics professor at State University of New York at Cortland, US and a former Bangladesh Bank chief economist, made these remarks in an interview with Kaler Kantho News Editor Faruk Mehedi.

The economic situation and even the security situation are not as worse as they might seem in Bangladesh at the moment, but impractical policy decisions and social instability have created undue panic among the domestic business community, the veteran economist noted.

Businessmen are fearful of committing new investment and are rather withdrawing existing ones, ultimately discouraging foreign entrepreneurs from entering the economic landscape.

More excerpts from the tete-a-tete are as follows:

Question: How do evaluate the ongoing economic malaise in Bangladesh?

Answer: An economy has two main hurdles: unemployment and inflation. Even the US, the world’s biggest economy, often struggle on these two fronts. The new reformist Bangladesh government has failed to tackle any of the two issues, and have rather contributed to the worsening of the employment scenario.

Policymakers must remember that these two fronts were the chief factors that swelled public anger against the erstwhile Awami League fascist regime and drove the dictators from power.

If the government can ensure better business output, jobs would grow, leading to increased income. Increased income would make inflation pressures tolerable for the masses. Social instability, repeated road blockades, and mob justice have fueled security fears among businesspeople.

The government should have sought alternate routes to allay the fears and rather acted in an imprudent way, which has only added to the concerns within the private sector.

Then there are rampant extortions conducted largely by political groups, which remained passive during the 15-year fascist rule.

Question: Has the government not given proper attention?

Answer: No such major crisis has struck Bangladesh that necessitates closures of multiple business establishments. And yet such is the case.

If a global recession had actually begun, that would be understandable. But instead, the global economy is gradually improving. The crisis has worsened due to a lack of attention to the economy. As a result, focus has shifted toward certain political, ideological, and moral questions, as well as linguistic additions and subtractions. Additionally, a kind of mob cultu

I’m loving the vying for position posts, not that I can see them. Buy and hold. Win 🥇

Hands open waiting 👐

The point being that there was 100k on the ask at 2.2p at the close. It must have been lifted in the auction.

Go figure 🤣

I bet they reach a concensus pretty sharpish searcher 😁

Time’s up!

Just saying.

As I’m still buying, the lower the better. We don’t need to raise funds so yep bring it on.

I’ve most of you filtered but if you are saying support has broken it hasn’t. There’s plenty just below where we are now. It’s a 40% buy signal still. Not a sell.