Bangladesh's Election Commission is all set to announce the date of parliamentary elections amid repeated calls for national polls more than a year after Sheikh Hasina's government was toppled following a student-led protest.
Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed was quoted by Reuters as saying that Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin will announce the election schedule in a national broadcast at 6:00 pm (1200 GMT).
A national referendum on implementing the so-called 'July Charter', a state reform plan drafted in the aftermath of the unrest, is also expected to be held on the same day.
Bangladesh's elections are due after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted last year following a nationwide protest. Yunus had then taken over as the head of the interim government on August 8, 2024.
The polls are likely to be held in February 2026. It may witness a tough fight between Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who currently leads the interim government in Bangladesh, and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is widely seen as the frontrunner in the upcoming polls, competing alongside the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which has returned to electoral politics after the interim government eased restrictions.
Jamaat, Bangladesh's biggest Islamic party, could not contest elections after a 2013 court ruling that its registration as a political party conflicted with the country's secular constitution. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of 173 million people.
Hasina’s Awami League, which has been barred from contesting the election, has warned of unrest if the ban is not lifted.
Bangladesh is currently been governed by an interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus since August last year, when long-serving Hasina fled to India in the face of deadly street protests against her government.
Bangladesh election: Muhammad Yunus sets deadline
Earlier in May this year, Bangladesh’s chief advisor, Muhammad Yunus, assured that the nationwide polls will take place between December 2025 and June 2026, even as political parties continue to pressure him to set a poll date.
During his visit to Japan, the interim chief announced that the next national elections will be held “any time between December and June next year”.
“Prof Yunus told Taro Aso that the election will be held between December and June. He has set a six-month time frame and the election will be conducted within that period,” Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam was quoted by Dhaka Tribune as saying.
