Bangladesh Opens Voting for First Election Since Deadly Uprising
The high-stakes ballot will determine both the composition of parliament and the fate of proposed constitutional amendments, with an electorate exceeding 127.6 million registered voters participating in the democratic exercise.
Polls commenced at 7:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) and are scheduled to conclude at 4:30 p.m. (1030 GMT), operating for a nine-hour window. Initial tallies are anticipated to emerge late Thursday as the nation selects 300 lawmakers through a network of 42,000 polling locations nationwide.
The electoral landscape features 51 competing political organizations and 2,034 individual candidates vying for parliamentary representation, including 275 contestants running without party affiliation. Beyond the 300 directly-elected seats, 50 additional positions are designated for women, expanding the legislative chamber to 350 total members.
Authorities have implemented extraordinary security protocols, installing closed-circuit television surveillance in over 90% of voting districts. A massive deployment of 958,000 law enforcement officers—including 100,000 military troops—has been mobilized to ensure peaceful proceedings throughout Bangladesh.
One constituency has postponed voting following a candidate's death.
The primary political battle lines have been drawn between a coalition headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and an alliance led by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, after election officials prohibited the Awami League of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from fielding candidates.
A constitutional referendum runs concurrently with the parliamentary vote, featuring proposals that would establish a neutral caretaker government framework to administer future elections.
Among the voting population, 45.9 million are youth and first-time voters—a demographic that formed the backbone of the 2024 mass movement known as the "July uprising," which culminated in Hasina's flight to India, where she remains in exile.
Since August 2024, an interim administration led by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has governed the country.
Last November, Hasina received a death sentence in absentia for crimes against humanity perpetrated during the uprising. According to UN figures, approximately 1,400 individuals lost their lives during the protests that ultimately forced her government's collapse.
The youth-driven 2024 movement, now reorganized as the National Citizen Party (NCP) under the leadership of activists who spearheaded the July demonstrations, is contesting seats alongside Jamaat-e-Islami and several minor political organizations.
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