Bangladesh to announce national election date on Dec 11

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Election Commission will announce the date for the upcoming parliamentary elections on Thursday, a commission official confirmed.

The elections are scheduled for February 2026, following a student-led uprising in 2024 that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.

Since August 2024, Bangladesh has been governed by an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, after deadly street protests toppled Hasina’s long-standing government.

Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin will reveal the election schedule in a national broadcast at 6:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT), Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters.

A national referendum on the so-called ‘July Charter’, a state reform plan drafted after the unrest, is also expected to be held on the same day. The charter proposes curbs on executive powers, strengthening the independence of the judiciary and election authorities, and preventing misuse of law-enforcement agencies.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is widely considered the frontrunner in the polls. They will compete alongside Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party, which has returned to electoral politics after restrictions were eased by the interim government.

Jamaat had been barred from elections since a 2013 court ruling, which declared that its registration as a political party conflicted with Bangladesh’s secular constitution. The country has a population of 173 million, with a Muslim majority.

Meanwhile, Hasina’s Awami League, barred from contesting the upcoming election, has warned of potential unrest if the ban is not lifted.