Dhaka, Feb 12: Voting began on Thursday morning in Bangladesh’s crucial general election — the first since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following massive nationwide protests in August 2024.
Polling commenced at 7:30 am (local time) in 299 of the 300 parliamentary constituencies and will continue until 4:30 pm. Counting of votes is expected to begin soon after polling ends. Voting in one constituency has been cancelled following the death of a candidate.
The 13th parliamentary elections are being held alongside a referendum on an 84-point reform package.
The Election Commission has put in place extensive security arrangements, deploying nearly one million security personnel — the largest deployment in the country’s electoral history.
The contest is primarily between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami, in the absence of Hasina’s disbanded Awami League. The interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus dissolved the Awami League last year and barred it from contesting the polls.
A total of 1,755 candidates from 50 political parties, along with 273 independents, are in the fray. The BNP has fielded the highest number of candidates at 291. There are 83 female candidates contesting the election.
Yunus, who has pledged a swift transfer of power to the elected government, urged political parties and candidates to exercise restraint and uphold democratic values on polling day.
In a televised address on the eve of the election, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin appealed to voters to cast their ballots freely and called on all stakeholders to maintain a peaceful environment.
Observers from 45 countries and organisations, including international election bodies, are monitoring the polls. Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Machud said nearly 900,000 law enforcement personnel have been deployed nationwide, according to state-run BSS news agency.
Authorities have stationed Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Rapid Action Teams (RATs) in key areas of the capital. Police identified 1,614 of Dhaka’s 2,131 polling centres as risk-prone, while the army termed two centres in the city as “risky.”
For the first time, drones and body-worn cameras are being used to enhance election security.
Election Commission data shows that first-time voters account for around 3.58 per cent of the nearly 127 million electorate. Additionally, nearly 800,000 registered expatriate Bangladeshis are voting through an IT-based postal ballot system — another first in the country’s electoral process (Agencies)
