Al Jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands

    Nearly 127 million eligible voters are heading to the polls in Bangladesh, in a key test of the country’s return to democracy after a student-led uprising toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.

    The vote is a direct contest between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a Jamaat-e-Islami-led coalition of 11 parties, which includes the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by youth ‌activists instrumental in ousting Hasina.

    Gen Z are now the largest voting bloc in Bangladesh, but will this election deliver real change after the 2024 uprising.

    Voters will not only pick a new parliament but will also weigh in on the controversial “July Charter”.

    Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury spoke to The Take about whether a new generation can truly reshape power in Bangladesh’s first post-uprising election.

Voters are also deciding on a new constitution today

    I think this is really important as a sort of subtext to this election.

    It is, perhaps, the truest legacy of that revolution 18 months ago, in which hundreds of students gave their lives.

    In the interim, a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus set about putting together a charter of reforms, which is what the students wanted. These include institutional reforms, electoral, policing and constitutional reforms designed to ensure this country doesn’t again slide into autocracy. Those are on the ballot in the form of a referendum happening at the very same time.

    People are being asked to say yes or no to them.

    I think there will be a landslide ‘Yes’ in that referendum vote.

    The bigger question after this election, of course, would be whether whoever wins it does, in fact, put them into practice.

    We’ve been speaking to Farhana Sultana, a professor of geography at Syracuse University, about today’s election.

    She said Bangladesh is facing “deep challenges”, including in “political, economic, social and environmental” areas.

    “Economic pressure, including youth unemployment and stagnating growth, is fuelling frustration among a new generation that demands real opportunity rather than symbolic change,” she said.

    Sultana, a climate justice expert, said that “climate vulnerability” remains “an ongoing existential issue for Bangladesh”, which is one of the most climate-impacted nations globally.

    “While not always a headline election topic, any new administration will need to integrate climate adaptation and water security into governance, economic planning and international cooperation,” she said.

    If today’s polls succeed in restoring public trust in elections, Sultana said, it will create the foundation needed to tackle challenges like climate change.

Only 4.24 percent of candidates are women

    Although more than 2,000 candidates are contesting today’s election, only 109 of them are women, according to the Daily Star newspaper.

    Political parties nominated 72 of the candidates, while the rest are independents.

    Some 30 of 51 parties did not nominate a single woman, the Daily Star reported.

    Bangladesh’s Women’s Political Rights Forum decried the exclusion in January, demanding political parties be held accountable for failing to meet the 5 percent quota for women candidates mandated by the national charter they agreed to in July of last year.

    “Even parties born out of mass uprisings, where women played a strong role, have shown a frustrating example,” said Sadaf Saaz of the forum.

‘Enthusiastic queues’, tight security as voting continues

By Jonah Hull

Reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh

    We are seeing pretty enthusiastic queues at the polling station we are at in Dhaka.

    As we understand it, it’s a similar scene across the country.

    Security is quite tight. There are armed police here; voting is frequently a pretty violent exercise in this country. No reports of violence so far today.

    There have been reports of infringements of the electoral code in one district in southern Dhaka, with a man found with a number of envelopes full of cash, apparently, intent on vote buying. He was dealt with pretty summarily by a special magistrate’s court set up just for that purpose.

    But obviously, they’ll be hoping this all goes off without resort to violence.

Shafiqur Rahman casts his ballot

By Masum Billah

Reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh

    The leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party has voted at the Dhaka-15 polling station at the Monipur Boys’ High School in the capital.

    Rahman has generated significant momentum for his party in recent months and is attempting to reposition Jamaat as a moderate Islamist force.

    The party has fielded a Hindu candidate for the first time in its history.

    Jamaat has transformed from a marginal force commanding 10 percent of the vote to a major player with more than 30 percent support ahead of today’s election.

    But the BNP is still widely seen as the frontrunner.

    A Jamaat victory would therefore be considered a major upset.

Bangladesh deploys 958,000 security personnel, CCTV cameras for crucial election

By Moudud Ahmmed Sujan

Reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Today’s national election and referendum are being conducted under extensive security camera monitoring and a heavy nationwide security deployment, according to officials.

    More than 90 percent of the country’s 42,779 polling centres are under CCTV coverage, with drones and body-worn cameras deployed for the first time in a national vote, Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah said, adding that the devices will document proceedings and support law enforcement.

    Nearly 958,000 security personnel have also been deployed nationwide.

    Voting is taking place in 299 constituencies. Polling in one constituency in the northern district of Sherpur has been postponed following the death of a candidate during the campaign period.