The first anniversary of last year's July Uprising, an epochal event in the country's history, passed this week, and it was marked by two important announcements that came from Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus himself. The first was the July Declaration, read out in the presence of representatives of all the major political parties as a gentle drizzle fell on the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad. It is now expected to be included in the schedule of the amended constitution, once a new parliament is in session.

The July Declaration isn't always convincing, particularly when it dabbles in revisionist history, but it has a certain purpose and necessity, which is to grant the Uprising formal constitutional recognition, alongside the political legitimacy it enjoys. That recognition is seen as essential in order to prevent any future legal challenges that could be used to not only cast aspersions on the Uprising itself, but also to harass those who led it from the front. In other words, those who went on to form the National Citizen Party, or to serve in the advisory council.

The NCP, very much the child of the revolution, had consistently been the loudest proponents of publishing the declaration. Simply put, no other group has a larger stake in its success, and no one stands to lose more if it fails. Although their convenor Nahid Islam was there on the stage beside Dr Yunus, it was certainly odd to learn that some of the party's most prominent faces had chosen August 5 to take 'a break' in Cox's Bazar. Just two days earlier, they had wrapped up a nearly 5-week programme visiting every district of the country by unveiling their own 'manifesto for a new Bangladesh' at the Central Shaheed Minar, which failed to gain much traction.

While the trip was bound to raise eyebrows, it cannot justify the kind of vile and toxic rumour-mongering we witnessed around it all day long - not just on social media but rather by prominent outlets that are very much a part of the country's mainstream. It was yet another instance of overzealous media ending up with egg on their faces, as the rumours connecting the trip to an imaginary meeting with ex-US ambassador Peter Haas were categorically disproven by fact-checkers.

The second, arguably more important announcement that Dr Yunus made on the day came later in the evening, in a televised address to the nation, where he disclosed his intention to deliver the long-awaited election that was always going to be the number one task for his government, in the first half of February 2026. The Election Commission has been tasked with choosing an appropriate date and finalising the schedule. The fruits of the June meeting in London between the CA and the BNP's acting chair, Tarique Rahman, were reflected in this decision. And it also held a clue perhaps, to the NCP leaders' discontent, since they had clearly always favoured a more distant election. For the rest of the nation though, it felt like a weight had been taken off their shoulders, and was patently the right decision. It is time to go to the people, and let them have their say again. Given the three sham elections on the trot under the last regime, the wait has already been much too long.