Bangladesh to hold national election on February 12

Bangladesh will hold its 13th national election on February 12, 2026, said the country’s Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Thursday.

This will be the first election in the country since the ouster of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government following a mass uprising.

Uddin said that a national referendum on the “July Declaration” would also be held on the same day, reported Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

The declaration promises full state and constitutional recognition of the 2024 student protests.

In August, Muhammad Yunus, the head of the country’s interim government, said that the declaration was essential to ensure “no future government can become fascist again”.

Yunus, a Nobel laureate economist, took over as chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government three days after Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India on August 5, 2024. Hasina fled after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government.

She was ousted from power after being the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

Yunus had pledged to step down once an elected government took office.

The last elections in the country were held in January 2024, when Hasina returned to office for a fourth consecutive term. The Awami League had won 222 out of the 300 elected seats in Parliament. Notably, the vote was boycotted by her main rivals, who accused her administration of rigging the result.

In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned all activities of the Awami League, including its online platforms, under the country’s anti-terrorism act.

Hasina had in October described the decision as unjust and warned that it could undermine the legitimacy of the vote. She also warned that millions of her supporters would boycott the general election unless her party is allowed to participate

“The next government must have electoral legitimacy,” she said. “Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”

In February, a United Nations report said that the Hasina government, the country’s security and intelligence services and “violent elements” associated with her Awami League party had “systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations” during the agitation in 2024.

Of the 1,400 killed and thousands injured between July 1, 2024, and August 15, 2024, the vast majority were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces, the UN report said. Of these, 12% to 13% killed were children.

On November 17, Hasina was sentenced to death after the country’s International Crimes Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against humanity for the deadly crackdown on the protests.

The verdict was the first in a series of four cases related to crimes allegedly committed during her government’s response to the protests.

Hasina, however, described the tribunal as biased and politically motivated, and denied having ordered firing on protestors.