Hasina managed to flee a mob that attacked her residence — and later Parliament — and fled to India, the place she has been residing since. She was tried in absentia in a Dhaka court docket in November 2025 and sentenced to dying for “crimes in opposition to humanity” in the middle of her suppression of student-led protests in opposition to her rule.
Who’re the principle contestants in Bangladesh’s election?
Since Hasina’s exit, Bangladesh’s political panorama has modified dramatically. Her once-dominant celebration, the Awami League, was banned final yr by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’ interim administration and is barred from contesting the polls.
The competition has narrowed all the way down to the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP) and its former accomplice, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). Tarique Rahman, son of former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia, is heading the BNP’s marketing campaign, with some observers suggesting he may emerge because the nation’s subsequent prime minister.
Following Zia’s dying in December 2025, Rahman assumed the position of BNP chairperson upon returning to Bangladesh from exile in London. Zia had deliberate to contest from three constituencies. Rahman returned to Bangladesh throughout the identical interval after 17 years in exile in London — the place he lived to keep away from quite a few legal investigations opened in opposition to him in Bangladesh throughout Hasina’s rule — to spearhead the celebration’s election marketing campaign. All circumstances in opposition to him have been dropped because the Awami League’s ouster from energy.
Whereas the BNP, a coalition of 10 events, is being projected because the main celebration, lots of its candidates are contesting as independents or by means of native preparations, the Dhaka Tribune has reported. A celebration spokesperson mentioned the BNP’s fast precedence was “defending votes on the bottom” reasonably than projecting nationwide momentum.
However, the Jamaat-e-Islami is main an 11-party alliance that features the Nationwide Citizen Get together (NCP), led by college students who had been outstanding within the 2024 anti-Hasina protests. The marketing campaign is being led by 67-year-old Shafiqur Rahman, who has set out his celebration’s imaginative and prescient for a “New Bangladesh”, pledging to guard democratic rights if elected, the Dhaka Tribune mentioned.
Prothom Alo, a number one Bangladeshi paper whose places of work had been attacked in December, on Monday reported {that a} new ballot confirmed the BNP and JeI in a neck-to-neck race to the end line. It quoted a survey carried out by the Worldwide Institute of Regulation and Diplomacy (IILD), with technical assist from Projection BD and Jagaran Basis, as exhibiting the BNP alliance profitable 44.1 per cent of the vote, with the JeI respiration down its neck with 43.9 per cent.
How has Bangladesh tightened safety for the polls?
Bangladesh’s electoral physique presently stands at 127.7 million, with first-time voters accounting for about 3.58 per cent. In one other first, practically 800,000 registered expatriate Bangladeshis will be capable of forged ballots by means of an IT-based postal system, the report added.
In whole, 1,755 candidates from 50 events and 273 independents are within the fray. The BNP has fielded 291 candidates, probably the most amongst all events.
Almost a million safety personnel have been deployed, in accordance with officers. Inspector Common of Police Baharul Alam earlier mentioned 24,000 of virtually 43,000 polling stations had been thought of “excessive” or “reasonable” threat. Police assessments confirmed 1,614 of Dhaka’s 2,131 centres as risk-prone, whereas the military recognized two centres within the capital as “dangerous”, reported PTI.
Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah mentioned drones and body-worn cameras are getting used for the primary time. Round 25,000 physique cameras might be deployed, some able to stay streaming, alongside CCTV protection at greater than 90 per cent of the nation’s 42,659 polling centres.
“The election might be accomplished as promised to the individuals. In depth safety and coordination preparations are in place with the assist of legislation enforcement businesses and the federal government,” Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin has mentioned.
He added that the participation of media and observers will play a big position in guaranteeing most transparency and public belief on this election.
