When Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled in the face of a mass uprising last week, a power vacuum was left in the 170 million-person country.

After Hasina left the country, the army took over and swiftly established an interim government to steer Bangladesh towards free and fair elections within three months.

Amid hopes for genuine societal reform, however, people are still wary. Is the three-month timeline sufficient to transform a politically fraught Bangladesh into a substantive democracy that can resist sliding back into autocracy?

For the past 15 years, heavy-handed, one-party rule in Bangladesh has squeezed opposition parties out of the political system and deprived citizens of true democracy.

The breaking point came when nationwide, student-led protests against an unfair government job quota transformed into a defiant movement to oust Hasina.

The 84-year-old Nobel laureate and entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus has now been appointed head of the transitional government, bringing much-needed credibility and economic expertise to a fragile moment.

The interim government also includes rights activists, professors, lawyers, former government officials and prominent members of Bangladesh’s civil society. Promisingly, it includes two 26-year-old student leaders – Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud. This move elevates young voices to a position of political decision-making.

Previously sidelined parties are getting back in the game, as well, such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. The public, however,........

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