Yunus seeks people support for party

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday he is considering forming a new political party in the hope of reforming the fractious and violent politics in Bangladesh, a domestic news agency said.

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday he is considering forming a new political party in the hope of reforming the fractious and violent politics in Bangladesh, a domestic news agency said.

In an open letter last week, Yunus sought the support of Bangladeshis to launch a new party to counter decades of corruption and political stalemate.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner asked the public to send him ideas on how the party could be structured, with a focus on strong leadership and good governance.

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Yunus on Sunday said he had received enough favourable responses to form a party to contest the next general elections. “I think the time has now come … We will have to move forward,” the United News of Bangladesh quoted him as saying. “It could be called ‘Citizen Power,”’ Yunus said, adding that a formal announcement would made later this month.

Yunus said he will mobilise people in villages for his new party, which would promote the politics of unity. “We have had enough politics of disunity and divisions,” he said.

Bangladeshi politics has been wracked by corruption, violence, mismanagement and nepotism in recent decades.

Yunus’s new party would be an alternative to the country’s two main parties — the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League–that have held power alternately since democracy was restored in 1991. “We have had enough politics of disunity and divisions,” he said.

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Bangladeshi politics has been wracked by corruption, violence, mismanagement and nepotism in recent decades.