Parliament in Bangladesh has been dissolved after its 15-year leader fled the country and resigned following weeks of protests against her government.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections to be held.
It comes after weeks of violent protests which resulted in more than 300 people being killed and culminated in Sheikh Hasina having to quit and seek refuge in India.
There were no new protests reported since Ms Hasina, 76 and who is the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahma, resigned on Monday, as thousands took to the streets of Dhaka to celebrate.
The president of the 170m-strong country also ordered opposition leader Khaleda Zia to be released from house arrest.
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Zia, a longtime rival of the ousted prime minister, was convicted on corruption charges by Ms Hasina’s government in 2018.
As the country waited for a new government to emerge, a key student leader said protesters wanted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to head an interim government.
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Yunus, who is currently in Paris for the Olympics, called Ms Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day” and, according to student leader Nahid Islam, he has agreed to head an interim government.
Bangladesh’s figurehead president and its top military commander said late Monday that an interim government would be formed soon to preside over new elections.
Ms Hasina fled to India by helicopter on Monday as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, with thousands of demonstrators eventually storming her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.
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According to the Indian Express newspaper, Ms Hasina was taken to a safe house and is likely to travel to the UK.
Protests originally kicked off as people sought to oppose a quota system for government jobs.
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But the high death toll from clashes between police and pro-government activists triggered more protests demanding accountability from the government for the violence.
Those then grew into calls for Ms Hasina – who won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition – to step down.
