After a turbulent 15 months, Bangladesh moves towards its 13th parliamentary election. Election Commission will formally announce the schedule today, marking the beginning of a three-month countdown to polls.
The country has witnessed unprecedented political change since the mass uprising of August 2024 that toppled Sheikh Hasina, the long-standing “iron lady,” and set the nation on a new political trajectory.
Three days after her fall, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed the role of chief adviser to the interim government with the immense responsibility of restoring stability, implementing reforms, prosecuting those accused of mass killings during the uprising, and delivering a credible election.
Amid competing demands from political parties, Yunus insisted that reforms must precede elections. In a televised address on 6 June, he announced that the next parliamentary polls would take place “on any day in the first half of April 2026.”
However, that timetable shifted after a crucial meeting in London with Tarique Rahman, the de facto BNP leader. At a joint briefing, the government signalled that the polls could be held as early as February.
Jamaat-e-Islami criticised the interim administration, accusing it of favouring BNP and excluding other parties.
National Citizen Party (NCP), born out of the student-led uprising, also aired grievances. It argued that prioritising the election date without meeting the demands of the movement undermined its spirit and warned that the public might reject a pre-charter election.
Upon returning to Dhaka, Yunus met security agency heads and instructed authorities to complete all preparations by December to enable the 13th national election.
The interim government struggled to bring rival parties to the negotiation table, though a degree of consensus emerged after prolonged effort.
On 6 August, Yunus wrote to the EC asking it to prepare for an election before Ramadan in February. Of 30 political parties, 24 — including BNP and Jamaat — signed the July Charter on 17 October in Yunus’s presence.
Gono Forum signed on 19 October, while NCP and four left-leaning parties withheld their endorsement.
Meanwhile, the trial proceedings against Hasina continued. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 ordered the start of her trial alongside former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the uprising. The tribunal later sentenced Hasina and Kamal to death in absentia under the doctrine of superior command responsibility, while the former IGP received a five-year sentence for cooperating as a state witness.
After months of uncertainty, EC is finally set to declare the schedule today — paving the way for the national election likely on 12 February.
