Bangladesh to hold general elections on February 12

    Dhaka/New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) Bangladesh will hold the general elections on February 12, its first since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in a violent student-led protest in August 2024.
    "Voting will take place on February 12, 2026, from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm," Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said in an address to the nation on Thursday.
    A referendum will simultaneously be held on the voting day to elicit public opinion on a series of reform proposals of the Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus-led National Consensus Commission.
    The announcement came a day after the CEC met President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who assured him “optimum support and cooperation” to conduct the general elections in a "free, fair and meaningful" manner.
    The CEC urged "sincere participation and active cooperation” from political parties, candidates, and voters in making the election and referendum successful. 
    The last general elections were held in January 2024. Hasina won the elections marred by controversy and boycott by major parties.
    Six months after Hasina's victory, protests erupted against her government. The violent street protests forced Hasina to leave for India on August 5, 2024. Three days later, Yunus took over as chief adviser of the interim government.
    The interim government has banned all activities of Hasina's Awami League under an anti-terrorism law.
    Hasina, 78, has been convicted and sentenced to death for "crimes against humanity" committed during the July-August mass uprising last year. She has been living in India.
    She has warned that holding elections without her party would be "sowing the seeds" of further division, and a large number of her supporters would abstain from voting. 
    In a statement posted on its X handle on Thursday, the Awami League rejected the election schedule announced by what it called the "illegal government's illegal election commission."
    "It is now clear that the current occupying authority is entirely biased, and that under their control it is impossible to ensure a fair and normal environment where transparency, neutrality, and the people's will can be reflected," the AL said.
    It demanded lifting of all restrictions imposed on the party, withdrawal of all "fabricated cases" against Hasina and other national leaders, an unconditional release of all political prisoners and a neutral caretaker government to hold a free and participatory election.
    New York-based Human Rights Watch has condemned the ban on the Awami League as "draconian".
    Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has emerged as the frontrunner, with its once ally Jamaat-e-Islami being the main rival in the absence of the Awami League.
    Both parties have already announced the names of their nominees in the election for the 300-seat parliament.
    BNP Secretary-General Mirza Falhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said the party's acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, would return to Bangladesh "very soon" after 17 years of exile in London.
    "The day our leader steps onto Bangladesh soil, the entire country should feel his presence,” he said.
    Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence, was in a state of wilderness and eventually banned days ahead of the past government’s ouster, has re-emerged -- under the leadership of Shafiqur Rahman -- visibly with extra vigour after the students' protest.
    The National Citizen Party (NCP), formed in February this year, is a political outfit of Students Against Discrimination (SAD) that led last year’s violent street movement leading to Hasina's ouster.
    The NCP has allied with Amar Bangladesh (AB) party, the offshoot of right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Rashtra Songskar Andolon to form an alliance called 'Gonotantrik Sangskar Jote.'
    Yunus has repeatedly said that Bangladesh would witness its “historic” elections in February.
    "This is a historic responsibility. If we can fulfil it properly, the next election day will become historic for the people as well," Yunus said while addressing administrative officials at the grassroots on Wednesday.
    According to the election schedule, the last date for submission of nomination papers is December 29, and scrutiny of nominations will be held from December 30 to January 4. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 20.
    The final list of candidates will be published on January 21. Election campaigns will begin on January 22 and continue until 7:30 am on February 10.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)