Vote counting is beneath means in Bangladesh, the place 127 million eligible voters are electing a brand new authorities, 18 months after a student-led motion ended Sheikh Hasina’s two-decade rule.
Alliances led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) are vying for essentially the most seats within the nationwide meeting.
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Listed here are the most recent updates from the Bangladesh Election Fee:
When will the outcomes be identified?
In earlier elections, unofficial outcomes have usually begun to emerge early the next morning.
Bangladesh Election Fee (EC) officers have advised native media, nevertheless, that the vote depend could take longer this time as it should contain each the white parliamentary voting poll and the pink ballots for the referendum on the July Nationwide Constitution.
There are additionally extra events and candidates this time.
Previous election outcomes
Bangladesh’s electoral historical past over the previous twenty years has been predominantly formed by the Awami League, which got here to energy in 2009 after a big defeat of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP), which had dominated from 2001 to 2006.
Within the 2001 election, the Awami League suffered a serious defeat, successful simply 62 seats, whereas the BNP secured a commanding majority with 193 seats. That election marked the final clear switch of energy between the 2 major events.
The steadiness shifted decisively in 2008, when the Awami League-led Grand Alliance returned to energy in a landslide. Since then, the social gathering has consolidated its dominance.
In 2014, with the BNP absent from the competition, Hasina’s Awami League once more gained in a landslide.
The social gathering additional strengthened its grip within the 2018 election, securing 300 seats, whereas the BNP was diminished to simply seven seats, its weakest efficiency on file. Hundreds of BNP leaders have been arrested within the lead-up to the elections. The Jamaat was banned in 2015, and so it couldn’t contest. Worldwide observers and opposition teams described the election as neither free nor truthful.
In the newest 2024 election, the Awami League gained 272 seats, sustaining a parliamentary majority. The BNP once more boycotted, amid deepening repression of opposition leaders. The Jamaat was nonetheless banned.
How does voting work in Bangladesh?
Votes are being forged throughout 42,761 polling centres in 64 districts for 300 parliamentary constituencies, in line with the ECB. There are 50 seats allotted for ladies’s illustration that are distributed primarily based on proportional illustration.
In line with the ultimate voter listing launched by the EC in November 2025, there are 127,711,793 registered voters together with 64,825,361 males, 62,885,200 ladies and 1,232 third-gender voters, all aged 18 and above.
That is the primary time postal voting has been facilitated, benefitting about 15 million abroad staff whose remittances kind an important a part of the Bangladeshi economic system.
Bangladesh has a “unicameral” legislature – a single legislative chamber which makes legal guidelines – the Jatiyo Shangsad or the Home of the Nation, with 350 constituencies. Every constituency has a single-member seat.
The voting age is eighteen years and older. Voting by way of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system is used to elect 300 members, whereas the remaining 50 seats are reserved for ladies and are allotted to events proportionally after the election outcomes. So, for instance, if a celebration wins 60 seats, it receives 10 reserved seats to be allotted to feminine politicians.
Who’re the important thing gamers?
There are 59 registered political events in Bangladesh, excluding ousted PM Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, whose registration was suspended by the election fee final 12 months, nullifying its skill to discipline candidates within the polls.
Of those, 51 events are taking part on this 12 months’s elections. In complete, 1,981 candidates are contesting, together with 249 impartial ones.
Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP)
The centre-right BNP is main a coalition of 10 events.
It’s led by Tarique Rahman, the son of the late former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. In December, Rahman, 60, returned to Bangladesh after practically 17 years of exile in London. He had escaped the nation in 2008 amid what he deemed a politically motivated persecution.
The BNP was based by Rahman’s father, Ziaur Rahman, a outstanding navy determine within the nation’s independence conflict towards Pakistan in 1971, in 1978.
The social gathering, primarily based on Bangladeshi nationalism, has historically swapped positions as governing and opposition social gathering with the Awami League since independence.
After Ziaur Rahman’s assassination in 1981, his spouse Khaleda Zia led the BNP, serving twice as prime minister, from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006.
After Hasina returned to energy in 2009, the BNP got here beneath intense stress; Khaleda was positioned beneath home arrest following a conviction in 2018 on corruption costs, however was acquitted and freed after Hasina was ousted in 2024.
Since Hasina’s departure, the BNP has re-emerged as a number one political pressure.
Jamaat-e-Islami
The JIB, generally referred to as Jamaat, spearheads an 11-party alliance, together with the Nationwide Citizen Occasion (NCP), a bunch shaped by college students who led the protests towards Hasina in 2024. The social gathering is led by 67-year-old Shafiqur Rahman.
Jamaat was based in 1941 by Abul Ala Maududi when India was nonetheless beneath British colonial rule.
In 1971, Jamaat opposed Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan and was banned after the liberation. Nevertheless, the BNP authorities lifted the ban in 1979.
Jamaat burgeoned into a big political pressure over the subsequent twenty years, backing BNP-led coalitions in 1991 and 2001.
Nationwide Citizen Occasion (NCP)
Fashioned by pupil leaders of the 2024 rebellion, it’s a centrist social gathering targeted on citizen-led governance and political reform. It has garnered consideration from youthful voters and civil society teams as a consequence of growing dissatisfaction with established events.
