Dhaka, May 30 -- As summer storms sweep through Dhaka, political tempests are brewing far stronger.

With the streets soaked and city halls shut, the standoff between Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus's interim government and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has sharpened into a defining political crisis, threatening to drag the nation into deepening unrest.

The dispute centers on a single question: when will Bangladesh vote again? The BNP, emboldened by the absence of its longtime rival Awami League, has drawn a firm red line: general elections must be held by December.

But Professor Yunus, the interim government's chief adviser, insists that a rushed vote would undercut vital electoral and institutional reforms. His govern...