Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman on Thursday said the next general election would be held under a caretaker government after the Supreme Court upheld a High Court ruling restoring the caretaker government system.
Speaking to reporters at his office at the Secretariat following the Appellate Division’s verdict on the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, the minister said the government remained politically committed to holding the next parliamentary election under a caretaker administration.
He said the precise structure of the election-time government and the process for forming it would become clear once the full text of the judgement was published.
Earlier in the day, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, upheld the High Court verdict declaring unconstitutional key provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment, including the abolition of the caretaker government system.
Lawyers said the ruling restored both the caretaker government system and the constitutional provision for holding referendums.
Asked whether he could confirm that the next parliamentary election would be held under a caretaker government, the minister replied: “Inshallah.”
He said restoring the caretaker government system was in line with his party’s long-standing political commitment. According to the minister, the concept of a non-party caretaker government emerged from the political movement led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia before the 1991 general election, which resulted in the formation of an interim administration to oversee the polls.
He added that the BNP government later institutionalised the arrangement through the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1996, establishing a formal framework for a neutral caretaker government.
The minister said his party had continued its movement over the past 16 to 17 years to restore the system, describing it as essential to protecting people's voting rights. He said the party’s objective had always been to ensure that voters could freely cast ballots for candidates of their choice and that restoring the caretaker government system was the only viable way to achieve that goal.
