New Delhi: Bangladesh will hold its first general election since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on 12 February, the country’s Election Commission announced Thursday.
Chief Election Commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin announced the dates in a pre-recorded national address, officially initiating what he described as the country’s most consequential electoral process in decades. The polls will include the 13th National Parliamentary Election and a referendum on the ‘July Charter’, a reform proposal drafted under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration over the past year.
Since Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, Bangladesh has been governed by the interim administration which has pledged to stabilise the country and overhaul State institutions affected by political chaos, delays in reforms and repeated protests.
The ‘July Charter’ to be put before voters alongside the general election proposes curbing concentration of power in the executive branch, strengthening judicial and electoral independence, and limiting the use of law-enforcement agencies in political disputes.
The ‘July Charter’ is a political declaration outlining agreed constitutional, electoral and administrative reforms in Bangladesh following the July 2024 protests. Drafted through negotiations between the interim government and 30 political parties, it was formally signed on 17 October.
“This election is a historic opportunity to build a new Bangladesh,” Yunus said Wednesday, adding that the process will be “fair and credible”.
With the Hasina-led Awami League barred from contesting, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is being seen as the frontrunner. Its acting chairperson Tarique Rahman, currently in exile in London, had earlier said that he would return to Bangladesh once election dates are announced. The once-banned Jamaat-e-Islami, whose registration was revoked in 2013 for violating the country’s secular constitution, is returning to electoral politics after the ban on it was lifted last year.
The National Citizen Party, formed by student leaders of the 2024 movement is struggling to translate momentum from the streets into electoral viability.
According to Daily Star, under the schedule, nomination papers must be filed by 29 December, with scrutiny running through early January and withdrawals allowed until 20 January.
Campaigns may begin on 22 January and must end on the morning of 10 February. Polling will run from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm—extended to allow voters to cast both parliamentary and referendum ballots. Nearly 300,000 expatriates have already registered for postal voting, Daily Star reported.
With the schedule now in effect, the electoral code of conduct has come into force as well.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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