Bangladesh in polling mode on 12 February, ousted Hasina’s Awami League absent

By: Nava Thakuria

Bangladesh, a Muslim majority nation of over 170 million people, goes for general election on 12 February 2026 to elect its 13th Jatiya Sansad in Dhaka.

According to the Bangladesh Election Commission altogether 12,77,11,895 electorates are eligible for voting where  over 4.5 million are newly registered young voters (after attaining 18 years). The voting will take place at 42,766 polling stations across the country where  785,225 presiding and polling officers will be deployed. Over 900,000 security personnel are expected to monitor and ensure safety & security of the candidates and voters during the election. Altogether 2,034 candidates representing 51 political parties along with 275 independent contenders are in the fray for 299 Parliamentary seats (poll- procedure postponed in one constituency due death of a candidate belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh). Only  78 women including 17 independent candidates are fighting in the battle of ballots.

However 50 additional  seats in the Parliament are reserved for women and they will be elected through indirect voting.

The campaigning that began on 22 January came to an end at 7:30 pm on 10 February. The electoral authorities have imposed a ban on all public rallies and processions for 96 hours before and after voting day. The polling on Thursday will begin at 7:30 am to continue till 4:30 pm. Nearly 500 foreign election observers including over  150  journalists representing 45 global media outlets have arrived in the south Asian nation. Notably, ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League is barred from participation in the electoral process leaving a fair space to the arch rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the election. The country had the last general election in January 2024, but the overthrowing of Hasina’s government following a student-led  mass uprising just after six months necessitated the polls.

Hasina, who was ruling the country since 2009 after winning consecutive polls, escaped a mass rebellion on 5 August 2024 to take a temporary shelter in neighboring India and continues her refuge somewhere in Delhi locality of the largest democracy on the globe.  The septuagenarian leader, widely seen as  pro-India in Bangladesh,  was recently convicted by a local court and sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity. The massive July-August 2024 unrest led to the killing of over 1,400 people including minors and paved the way for an interim government led by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus. Lately, the Yunus administration pursued her urgent extradition only to deteriorate the diplomatic relations with the giant neighbour ahead of the election.

Meanwhile, the path to electoral battles remains bumpy since the beginning  for the Yunus administration.  The situation went volatile after the shooting of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a young leader emerged during July 2024 unrest targeting the Hasina regime by masked assailants, and subsequent death of the radical leader in Singapore on 18 December while undergoing medical treatment. Rumours spread that Hadi’s  killers sneaked to India and it was enough to revitalize the anti-India (read anti-Hindu) sentiments in the country. Thousands of incidents reported where the fanatic Islamic elements attacked non-Muslims across Bangladesh compelling the Hindu majority India to react sharply. Public protests also erupted in front of Indian missions and later counter demonstrations took place outside the Bangladeshi missions. With the backdrop of diplomatic tensions between Dhaka and New Delhi, both the countries have restricted tourist visas after summoning each other’s high commissioners to lodge protests on multiple occasions.

India’s foreign ministry recently claimed that over  2,900 incidents of attacks on religious minorities were reported in Bangladesh under the Yunus-led interim government and the unremitting hostility against Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists at the hands of extremists was a matter of grave concern for New Delhi. Various independent sources recorded that nearly 200 people were killed in mob violence in the last year. Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian Unity Council also claimed that there was a sharp spike in incidents targeting minorities amid political instability following the ouster of  Hasina’s regime.

The international media reported with shocks on 18 December as  Deepu Chandra Das, 29, was lynched and his body was hanged to set on fire by a Muslim mob in Mymensingh locality over an alleged blasphemy (allegedly of insulting Islam) charge. It was immediately followed by the lynching of Amrit Mondal, 30, on 24 December in Rajbari area. Bajendra Biswas, 42, a garment factory worker was shot dead in Mymensingh by a colleague on 29 December. Similarly, businessman Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was hacked and set on fire by a mob in Shariatpur locality leading to his death in the hospital on 3 January. It was followed by the killing of  Samir Kumar Das, 28, an auto-rickshaw driver, who was stabbed to death in Chittagong locality on 11 January. Mysterious deaths of Akash Sarkar, a student of Jagannath University in Dhaka along with Mithun Sarkar, Proloy Chaki, Sarat Chakraborty Mani, etc also added to the number of minority victims.

New Delhi-based Rights & Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) documented a surge in targeted attacks against Bangladesh's Hindu minority community attributing to Islamist forces under the guise of election-related unrest. RRAG director Suhas Chakma asserted that deliberate setting the temples on fire, vandalism on residential properties and also physical assaults on minorities continues in the neighboring country. Mentionable is that Bangladesh recorded over 520 communal attacks in a year (2025), where over 60 non-Muslims were killed and 28 cases of rape and other forms of violence against women took place. Attacks on religious sites and desecration of Hindu deities were reported in several cases.

Speaking to this writer Chakma stated that continued denials of any religious angles  by the authorities simply emboldened the religious fundamentalists. The victims out of fear of reprisal often described the targeted burning down of the houses as 'accidents or foul play' despite attempts to burn them alive to death or being made destitute after burning all their assets and belongings, he added. Even the Bangla government press wing admitted at least  274 violent incidents took place following the killing of Hadi, convener of Inqilab Mancha, in Dhaka during the second half of December last year.

The situation turned fragile when Hasina made a public speech on 23 January lambasting Yunus as ‘presiding over an illegal and violent regime’ to plunge  Bangladesh into lawlessness.  Addressing the media at Foreign Correspondents' Club in New Delhi through an audio message for the first time after her departure from Dhaka, Hasina attacked Yunus personally terming the octogenarian caretaker regime head ‘a murderous fascist, money launderer and traitor’. The daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, often preached as Father of the Nation (Bangladesh), also denied all charges framed against her stating that she was not personally involved in any crime against humanity.  Hasina’s views were sharply reacted by Dhaka accusing New Delhi of providing her undue space only to create more tensions between the two neighbours.

Speaking to this writer from Dhaka, a local trader argued that the elections in Bangladesh remained controversial for decades when the BNP used to avoid the last there national polling. He reminded that if the absence of  Awami League in the forthcoming elections becomes too important, what happened when BNP was not in the scene (national elections in 2024, 2018 and 2014) and voters' turnout was too low.  He admitted that Hasina’s presence in Delhi continues to create trouble in bilateral relations between the two countries. The problem with India was that both the ruling and opposition parties preferred to look at Bangladesh through the eyes of Hasina only. The trader also posed a pertinent question, if at all Hasina deserves a refuge, but what is the reason that thousands of her party leaders are allowed to stay in India, precisely in New Delhi and Kolkata.