Bangladesh's Yunus urges 'patience' after 100 days in power

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus has begged the country's "patience" to prepare for much-awaited elections in a speech to the nation marking 100 days in power since a student-led revolution.

The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was appointed to lead the government as "chief advisor" on August 9, days after the student-led uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina's 15 years of iron-fisted rule.

Yunus, a microfinance pioneer, is leading a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the "extremely tough" challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

Vowing an election commission will be formed "within a few days", Yunus said he could not give a timeframe for elections, saying it was dependent on a raft of election and constitutional reforms.

"I promise that we will hold the much-anticipated election once the necessary and essential reforms are complete," he said in the broadcast.

"I request your patience until then. We aim to build an electoral system that will endure for decades. For this, we need some time."

Yunus said his administration was also focused on ensuring those guilty of cracking down on the protests to oust Hasina faced justice, and said he had spoken to Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

He also said that about 1,500 people died in protests that brought down Sheikh Hasina, and as many as 3,500 may have been forcibly abducted during her 15-year rule.

"Every day, new names are being added to the list of martyrs,” Yunus said, pledging to prosecute those responsible for the violence.

Yunus' government has vowed to ensure justice for victims of what he referred to as the "autocratic regime’s wrath".

'Monumental' challenge

He also said a commission investigating forced disappearances had found information on 1,600 cases as of October, but that the total could potentially exceed 3,500.

And he reiterated his government’s commitment to demanding Hasina's extradition from India.

“We will prosecute all the crimes committed over the past 15 years,” he said, adding that the government had begun efforts to bring those responsible for the disappearances and killings, and the July-August violence, to international courts.

Bangladesh has issued an arrest warrant for 77-year-old Hasina - last seen arriving in neighbouring India after fleeing by helicopter as crowds stormed her palace.

Hasina has been summoned to appear in court in Dhaka on Monday to face charges of "massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity", but she remains in exile in India.

Several of her former government ministers, who were detained and held in custody, are expected in court to face similar charges.

Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean has called the challenge facing Yunus "monumental", warning of that "cracks are emerging in the fragile alliance" that pushed him into power.

"For now, Yunus and his colleagues have widespread support, but popular expectations are double-edged", the thinktank said in report on Thursday.

"If the interim administration falters in making reforms, the outcome is likely to be an early election with little progress; in the worst-case scenario, the military could assume power."