Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has restored the system of nonpartisan caretaker governments for transfers of power, a key longstanding demand of political parties in the politically unstable South Asian country.
Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman told reporters on Thursday: "Today's verdict reinstates the previous caretaker government system. This will take effect within 15 days of the dissolution of the next parliament."
Though the next parliamentary election will be held under the current interim government of Muhammad Yunus, later, the next national election will be held under the caretaker government system, according to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
A caretaker government is a strictly nonpartisan administration appointed to oversee elections, while Bangladesh’s current interim setup is a temporary authority formed after political turmoil that may still include figures linked to existing institutions or political groups.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed delivered the verdict overturning the court’s own 2011 ruling from the era of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year.
The new verdict was given unanimously after hearing appeals and review petitions filed by political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, as well as by independent individuals and organizations.
BNP Senior Advocate Zainul Abedin, who represented the party before the court, hailed the new ruling, saying: "The entire nation is happy today with the new decision as their voting rights were fulfilled.”
Basic structure of democracy
The 2011 ruling was issued by a Supreme Court led by then-Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque.
Haque was recently arrested and put in jail, facing allegations that he was a leading individual behind the political crisis in the 15-year regime led by Hasina.
A ruling last December said the constitutional changes abolishing the caretaker system had harmed the basic structure of democracy.
Hasina’s government had also abolished the system in parliament despite massive opposition from other political parties.
Hasina fled to India last August in a student-led uprising, followed quickly by the installation of a transitional government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
The caretaker system was introduced in 1996.
After it was scrapped, opposition political parties boycotted national elections in 2014 and 2024, demanding a neutral election-time government and accusing Hasina's partisan government of rigging the vote and influencing the general elections.
However, Hasina's Awami League party claimed that they had amended the Constitution to prevent unconstitutional entities from taking power.
