DHAKA (AFP) — Three days of political rallies began in Bangladesh on Thursday with rival groups set to stage mass demonstrations in Dhaka, drumming up support for eagerly anticipated elections following an uprising last year.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who has led an interim government since autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace in August, has said elections will be held as early as December, and at the latest by mid-2026.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the poll, will hold a May Day rally in Dhaka.

“We are confident this will be the most memorable grand rally in recent times,” BNP media officer Shairul Kabir Khan said.

The largest Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, will also take to the streets of the capital on Thursday.

The Jatiya Party, formerly close to Hasina’s regime, will also hold a rally.

It will be its first outdoor political event since its offices were vandalized in October, allegedly for helping Hasina’s Awami League cling to power.

On Friday, the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by students who spearheaded the youth-led protests that overthrew Hasina, will hold a rally.

NCP leader Nahid Islam initially joined the interim government led by Yunus, before resigning to form the party.