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Bangladeshis voted on Thursday in its first election since the deadly 2024 rebellion as the parties fractured Sheikh HasinaThe government is back in the fray with a powerful political successor facing an Islamist-led coalition.
Queues stretched outside polling stations in the capital Dhaka as voting began in the much-anticipated election in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.
More than 300,000 soldiers and police are deployed across the country, with AND experts warning ahead of the vote of “growing intolerance, threats and attacks” and a “tsunami of disinformation”, especially aimed at the millions of young people who are voting for the first time.
“I voted in 1991 and today, after many years, I cast my vote here,” said Nur Alam Shamim, 50, who voted for the first time at New Model Degree College in Dhaka-10 constituency.
Shitth Goswami, 21, A student at Dhaka City College lined up early to vote to avoid crowds.
“This was my first vote and I hope that after everything we’ve been through in recent years, now is the time for something positive,” she said.
Leading prime ministerial candidate Tarique Rahman, 60, is confident his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) can regain power — but faces a tough challenge from the Muslim-majority country’s biggest Islamist party, Jamaat e Islami.
Jamaat leader Shafiqur Rahman, 67, has launched a disciplined grassroots campaign, and if he wins, the former political prisoner could lead the first Islamist led the government in constitutionally secular Bangladesh.
Polls vary widely, though most give the BNP the lead — and some suggest a tight race.
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“Determine the future”
“The significance of this day is far-reaching,” interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who will step down when the new government takes over, said in his address to the nation ahead of the vote.
“It will determine the future direction of the country, the character of its democracy, its durability and the fate of the next generation.”
The 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has led the South Asian nation since Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule ended with her ouster in August 2024. His administration banned her Awami League from contesting elections.
Hasina, 78, was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity for her bloody crackdown on protesters during her final months in power, and remains in hiding in neighboring India.
Yunus also pushed for a comprehensive charter of democratic reforms to overhaul what he called a “totally broken” system of government and prevent a return to one-party rule.
127 million voters will also decide in the referendum whether to support proposals on term limits for the prime minister, a new upper house of parliament, stronger presidential powers and greater independence of the judiciary.
Voters will elect 300 MPs directly, with a further 50 women elected from party lists.
Manual counting begins after closing at 16:30 (10:30 GMT). The results of the last election were announced hours later — although the counting this time also includes the referendum ballots.
“The key test for Bangladesh now will be to ensure that the election is conducted fairly and impartially, and that all parties then accept the result,” said Thomas Kean, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Police data show that five people were killed and more than 600 injured in political clashes during the campaign.
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‘Fair and inclusive’
The next government will inherit a devastated economy in the world’s second largest apparel exporter, along with a delicate relationship with neighboring India.
The BNP’s Rahman — whose late parents ran the country — told AFP that his first priority, if elected, would be to restore security and stability. But he warned that the challenges ahead are enormous.
“The economy is destroyed,” he said. “There is a huge number of unemployed people. We have to create businesses so that these young people have a job.”
But his Islamist political rivals, who campaigned on a platform of justice and an end to corruption, sense their biggest opportunity in decades.
“We want to build a country of unity with everyone,” Jamaat leader Rahman said in his closing campaign speech. “It will be a country where no one will get a driver’s seat because of their family background.”
About 10 percent of Bangladesh’s population is non-Muslim, most of them Hindu.
In his final address to the nation before the vote, Yunus urged citizens to respect the “sacrifice” of the 2024 rebellion and to “put the national interest above personal and party” agendas.
“Victory is part of democracy; defeat is also an inevitable part,” he said. “Please commit to building a new, just and inclusive Bangladesh.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
