Bangladesh's main opposition warns of instability if elections delayed beyond December

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bangladesh's main opposition party has warned of instability and "strong resentment within the people" if elections are not held by December, after the country's de facto prime minister said the poll could be delayed until 2026.

An unelected interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has been running the South Asian country of 173 million since August, after deadly student-led protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a long-time India ally, to flee to New Delhi.

The country's two biggest parties, Hasina's Awami League and rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party, had both wanted elections to be held last year, but Yunus said in a speech on Tuesday that a vote could be held between December 2025 and June 2026.

That would give time for reforms to conduct "the most free, fair and credible elections in Bangladesh", Yunus said. The opposition and some Western countries alleged widespread rigging in the previous elections by Hasina, which she denied.

Earlier this month, a former ministerial colleague of Yunus, student leader Nahid Islam, said elections this year would be difficult as policing and law and order have not yet been fully restored.

But the opposition BNP wants a return to democracy this year, said Abdul Moyeen Khan, a member of the party's highest decision-making body and a former minister of science and information technology.

"We will try to convince them that the best way for them is to call an election as soon as possible and go for an honourable exit," Khan told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, referring to the interim government.

"December is a generally agreed-upon schedule. Beyond December would make things more complicated," said Khan, speaking from Washington D.C. where he is seeking meetings with U.S. officials to discuss Bangladesh.

"There will be strong resentment within the people of Bangladesh. That means some instability maybe... Time will decide."

Khan is the first senior BNP figure to warn of consequences if elections are not held this year.

NO PRE-POLL COALITION FOR BNP

Hasina's Awami League has largely disintegrated with the prime minister and other senior leaders out of the country or on the run.

BNP's main rivals in the next election are likely to be Islam's newly launched students outfit, Jatiya Nagorik Party or the National Citizen Party. Student leaders have said Bangladeshis are tired of the two established parties and want change.

But Khan said internal BNP surveys show the party would win an easy majority in any election held within the next year and that acting party chief Tarique Rahman would return to Dhaka from his self-imposed exile in London when elections are announced.

Several court orders against him and his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, have been overturned in recent months, potentially allowing him to return.

BNP chairperson Zia, who suffers from liver cirrhosis and heart problems and has been recovering in London since January, is "far better now than how she was in Bangladesh", but unlikely to return to active politics, Khan said after a recent meeting with her.

Khan said the BNP had no plans yet to contest the election as part of any coalition, but once elected it would be open to working with other parties, including the students' Jatiya Nagorik Party.

"After the election, we'd be happy to form a government with everyone who is in favour of democracy," he said.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Michael Perry)