Bangladesh held its first parliamentary election since mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government in 2024, and on Thursday voting moved from a slow start to fuller crowds at polling stations in Dhaka and elsewhere. The Election Commission said turnout reached more than 47% by 2 p.m., and it reported that political party representatives were present as observers while security officials kept a close watch as polls closed later in the day.
Initial projections cited by Dhaka-based Jamuna TV indicated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led the race, with 151 seats—enough, under Bangladesh’s parliamentary structure, for a majority capable of forming a new government. Officials expected results to be released on Friday, as the vote served as a test of Bangladesh’s democratic trajectory after the mass protests that drove Hasina into exile in India.
The BNP is headed by Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December. Rahman returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in self-exile in London, and television stations later reported that he won in two constituencies—one in Dhaka and another in his northern ancestral home—as the vote concluded.
Facing the BNP is an 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami, a Islamist party that had been banned under Hasina’s government but has grown in prominence since her removal. Jamuna TV projected that the alliance won 40 seats, with three additional seats going to other parties.
The election was held against a highly unsettled backdrop that included what was dubbed as the “Generation Z uprising” and a period marked by mob violence, attacks on Hindu minorities and the media, and a weakening rule of law. Organizers and observers also said the election carried particular sensitivity because young voters were seen as having played a central role in the 2024 uprising, and about 5 million first-time voters were eligible.
Hasina’s Awami League, which was barred from contesting, rejected the election as it unfolded. In a statement on X, the party said what it called a “so-called election by Yunus, who seized power illegally and unconstitutionally” was “essentially a well-planned farce,” and it said “the people’s voting rights, democratic values, and the spirit of the constitution were completely disregarded” in what it described as a “deceptive, voter-less election” without the Awami League.
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told reporters that the interim government was committed to delivering a credible and transparent election. He said on Thursday: “This is a day of great joy. Today is the birthday of a new Bangladesh,” and he portrayed the election as an opportunity for change after a turbulent period, in which international observers and foreign journalists were also present—about 500 in total, including delegations from the European Union and the Commonwealth.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafiqur Rahman said he was optimistic after casting his ballot, telling The Associated Press that the election “is a turning point.” He added, “People demand change. They desire change. We also desire the change.”
The election also comes with a referendum tied to reforms set out in a national charter signed by major political parties last year. Voters were asked to say “Yes” to endorse major reform proposals, which—if backed by a majority—would allow the newly elected parliament to form a constitutional reform council with 180 working days from its first session, including proposals such as creating new constitutional bodies and changing parliament from a single body to a bicameral legislature with an upper house empowered to amend the constitution by a majority vote.
With Hasina’s party excluded from the discussion and banned from the polls, the contest is likely to shape not only leadership changes but the political stability of Bangladesh itself, which since independence in 1971 has seen entrenched parties, military coups and allegations of vote rigging. For some voters, the vote’s significance was bound up with whether they could express their choice more freely than in past elections. Ikram ul Haque, 28, said he viewed the ballot as “a very crucial election” because “this is the first time we can show our opinion with freedom,” adding that past elections were “far from fair.”