General elections were held in Bangladesh on 12 February 2026 to elect members of the Jatiya Sangsad. It was the first general election since the July Uprising of 2024 that ended the 15-year-long rule of Sheikh Hasina. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Tarique Rahman, won a landslide victory in the election, securing two-thirds of seats; Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secured the second most seats and a constitutional referendum on the July Charter was held alongside the election.
More than 127 million people were eligible to vote in the election, making it the "biggest democratic exercise of the year". 2,028 candidates contested for the 299 seats in the election. Major parties contested; however, Hasina's Awami Leaguethe winner of the previous four electionswas banned and could not participate in the election. This made the election a "bipolar contest" between the BNP and the 11 Party Alliance led by the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party. The election took place under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which had governed the country since August 2024.
Key campaign issues and agendas included unemployment, corruption, extortion, proportional representation (PR), and promises to the youth and the minority voters. A professor at SOAS University believed that the election was decided "less by ideology and more by promises of governance". For the first time in the country, postal ballots were used for the votes of expatriates, polling officials, and detainees. The election was also considered to be the world's first "Gen Z-inspired" election after the series of Gen Z protests around the world.
Background
The Awami League won the 2024 general election, held amid a boycott by major opposition parties, following a record low voter turnout and a controversial election. In spite of this, they formed a government. The United States Department of State stated that the election was not free and fair and the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office termed the election as "lacking the preconditions of democracy". According to The Economist, through that election, "Bangladesh effectively became a one-party state".
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded that the government hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the January 2024 elections. This was rejected by Hasina, who vowed, "Bangladesh will never allow an unelected government again". Hasina's resistance to a caretaker government arose following the 2006–2008 political crisis, during which a caretaker government assumed military-backed control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including her and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Zia was sentenced to prison for five years, later extended to ten years, on 8 February 2018 for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage corruption case. Her son Tarique Rahman, the following BNP chairperson, was also found guilty of criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder for a 2004 Dhaka grenade attack that injured Hasina and killed 24 people. He was automatically barred from running for office due to the resulting life imprisonment.
In June 2024, the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement erupted throughout the country, demanding the reform of quotas in government jobs. The protests were met with a brutal crackdown by law-enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces, resulting in the July massacre. By August, the protests intensified into a large-scale Non-cooperation movement (2024) against the government which eventually culminated in the Resignation of Sheikh Hasina and her flight from persecution on 5 August. The following day, the 12th Jatiya Sangsad was dissolved by President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Khaleda Zia was released by the President of Bangladesh following Hasina's resignation.
Following negotiations between Students Against Discrimination leaders and the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh to lead an interim government with a view of leading the country to new elections. The student leaders of the protest movement have also formed political groups such as the National Citizen Party and are assumed to participate in the election. Over time, serious disagreements have arisen over participation of the Awami League in the polls. BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Jatiya Party (Ershad) leader GM Quader supported Awami League participation in the polls. Bangladesh Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman had reportedly stated that the participation of a "refined" Awami League led by leaders with "clean" image like Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Saber Hossain Chowdhury is necessary to ensure that the elections are "free, fair and inclusive". Students Against Discrimination placed within the interim government like Mahfuj Alam bitterly opposed the participation of the Awami League in the polls. NCP leader Nahid Islam also voiced his opposition to participation of the Awami League in the polls, unless its leaders are put on trial for the July massacre. He stated that any attempt to relaunch the so-called refined Awami League in the elections amounts to foreign interference. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman has also expressed his opposition to allowing the Awami League to participate in the polls.
A petition demanding a ban on the Awami League and its associates of the Grand Alliance filed by the student agitators had been rejected by the Appellate Division. On 9 April 2025, the NCP, Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist organisations such as the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh staged a 2025 Awami League ban protests in front of the Jamuna State Guest House, the residence of the Chief Adviser, demanding a ban on the Awami League. On the following day, the interim government banned the Awami League and all of its activities in cyberspace and elsewhere, under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009. The ban would last until the International Crimes Tribunal completes the trial of the party and its leaders. On 17 November 2025, the International Crimes Tribunal ruled that Sheikh Hasina and her co-defendants were guilty of war crimes and sentenced her along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death. Khaleda Zia, former Bangladesh Prime Minister who was acquitted of all charges after the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement died on 30 December 2025 after a prolonged illness sparking a change in Bangladesh political landscape.
Electoral system
The 350 members of the Jatiya Sangsad consist of 300 directly elected seats using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) in single-member constituencies, and an additional 50 seats reserved for women. The reserved seats are elected proportionally by the elected members. Each parliament sits for a five-year term. The interim government led by the Yunus ministry introduced reforms before the election, including reintroduction of "no vote" for the single candidate constituencies. It was the first general election in Bangladesh where expatriates voted through postal ballot. Accompanied by the referendum, postal voting, technical support and observer accreditation, this became the "most procedurally complex" election in the country's history.
Voters According to the final voter list published by the Election Commission of Bangladesh, 127,711,793 people are eligible to vote in the election, 64,825,361 among whom are male, 62,885,200 are female, and 1,232 are third gender voters. The growth rate of the male voters was 2.29%, and the female voters was 4.16%. With 804,333 voters, Gazipur-2 is the largest constituency by the number of voters, while Jhalokati-1 is at the lowest number with 227,431 voters.
Electoral preparation + Schedule Poll Event Schedule Official declaration from the chief adviser 5 August 2025 Declaration of the schedule 11 December 2025 Application deadline for candidates 29 December 2025 Scrutiny of nomination 30 December 2025 – 4 January 2026 Last date for withdrawal of nomination 20 January 2026 Symbol allocation 21 January 2026 Postal voting 22 January – 12 February 2025 Start of campaign period 22 January 2026 End of campaign period 10 February 2026 Date of poll 12 February 2026 Date of counting of votes 12 February 2026 Date of reserved women seats Poll 12 May 2026
In a televised address to the nation on 6 June 2025, Yunus declared the general election would be held on any day of the first half of April 2026. The BNP and Jatiya Party (Ershad) opposed holding elections in mid-2026, and demanded that the date be moved forward to December 2025, citing Kalbaisakhi storms and Ramadan. Later on 5 August, Yunus said in a televised broadcast that he would write to the Election Commission to request the election be held in February 2026 before Ramadan, which will begin as early as 17 February.
Chief election commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin's speech on the electoral schedule was recorded by the Bangladesh Television (BTV) and the Bangladesh Betar on 10 December 2025, and was broadcast on 11 December. On 22 December, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus inaugurated ten campaigning trucks named "Super Caravan", whose work will be to agitate public consciousness on election and information about the referendum.
A total of 3,407 nomination papers were collected for the 300 constituencies, and 2,582 papers were submitted. 28% of the submitted nominations were declined by the returning officers. 645 appeals were made against the nomination invalidation to the Election Commission. The election witnessed a significant increase of the number of female candidates, particularly from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and National Citizen Party (NCP). The only third gender (hijra) candidate was Anwarul Islam Rani, who stood as an independent candidate from Rangpur-3. With 15 candidates, Dhaka-12 is the constituency with the most candidates, while Pirojpur-1 is the lowest with only two candidates. +Region(s)ConstituenciesNomination papers collectionNomination papers submissionPrimary nominationFinal nomination Valid Invalid Valid after appeal Valid nomination invalid after appeal Nomination withdrawn Dhaka Division 70 638 444 309 133 87 0 49 360 Cumilla 18 496 365 259 97 53 3 42 271 Mymensingh Division 24 402 311 199 112 72 0 43 240 Khulna Division 36 358 276 196 79 39 0 35 204 Rangpur Division 33 338 278 219 59 45 1 29 237 Rajshahi Division 39 329 260 185 74 45 0 23 216 Chattogram Division 58 293 194 138 56 32 1 19 155 Barishal Division 21 212 166 131 32 14 0 21 131 Sylhet Division 19 176 146 110 36 23 0 28 105 Faridpur 15 165 144 96 47 33 0 16 117 Total 300 3,407 2,582 1,842 725 443 5 305 2,036 On 4 February, the EC suspended election in the Sherpur-3 constituency over the death of Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Nuruzzaman Badal under the Representation of the People Order, 1972. Before the election, the government issued a three-day general holiday for the workers starting from 10 February, and a two-day general holiday for the service holders and government employees starting from 11 February, accompanied by the weekends of Friday-Saturday on 13 and 14 February respectively. Furthermore, the EC restricted the moving of some specific vehicles between 11 and 13 February midnights. This led to a nationwide mass migration of millions of homebound voters in a short timespan, creating heavy traffic and congestion in the highways, railways and the waterways, as well as a shortage of public transportation. According to The Daily Star, around 48 lakh mobile phone users left Dhaka between 9 and 11 February.
Parties and alliances