2026 Bangladeshi general election
General elections are scheduled to be held in Bangladesh on 12 February 2026 to elect members of the Jatiya Sangsad. This election will determine the next Government of Bangladesh. The vote will take place under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which has governed the country since August 2024. A constitutional referendum on the July Charter will be held alongside the election.
127,695,183 people are eligible to vote in the election, making it the "biggest democratic process of 2026". 1,981 candidates will contest for the 300 seats in the election. Major parties are expected to contest, however, the Awami League, the winner of the previous four elections, is currently suspended, and is not participating in the election. This has made the election a "bipolar contest" between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the 11 Party Alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party.
Key campaign issues and agendas include unemployment, corruption, extortionism, proportional representation, and promises to the youth and the minority vote bank. According to Khan, the professor at SOAS University, the election will be decided "less by ideology and more by promises of governance". This will be the first election in Bangladesh where postal votes would be used.
Background
The Awami League won the 2024 general elections 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 lacking the preconditions of democracy. According to The Economist, through the previous election, "Bangladesh effectively became a one-party state".The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, demanded that the government hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the January 2024 elections. This was rejected by Hasina, who vowed that "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 Hasina and the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Khaleda Zia was sentenced to prison for five years on 8 February 2018, for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage corruption case. The sentence was then modified to 10 years. Zia's successor as chair of the party, her son Tarique Rahman, was also found guilty of criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder for a grenade attack in 2004 that injured Hasina and killed 24 people. He was sentenced to life in prison. As such, he was barred from running for office.
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 against the government which eventually culminated in the Resignation of Sheikh Hasina 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 student protest 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 like 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 & Jatiya Party leader GM Quader supported the participation of Awami League 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 & Saber Hossain Chowdhury is necessary to ensure that the elections are 'free, fair & inclusive'. However, 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 dissent against allowing the Awami League to participate in the polls.
A petition demanding a ban on the Awami League & its associates of the Grand Alliance filed by the student agitators had been turned down by the Appellate Division. On 9 April 2025, The NCP, Jamaat-e-Islami & other Islamist organisations like the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh staged a 2025 Shahbag protest 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 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 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 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 introduced reforms before the election, including reintroduction of "no vote" for the single candidate constituencies. It would be the first general election in Bangladesh where expatriates will vote through postal ballot.
Voters
According to the final voter list published by the Election Commission of Bangladesh, 127,695,183 people are eligible to vote in the election, 64,814,907 among whom are male, 62,879,042 are female, and 1,234 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.Campaign and electoral preparations
Major campaign issues
Unemployment
has been a major problem for the Bangladeshi economy, especially affecting the youth. According to a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics report, Bangladesh's overall youth unemployment rate stood at 4.48% in 2024, which was 4.15% in 2023. In 2024, 87% of the unemployeds were educated, and 21% of them were graduates, showing the lack of job growth needed to accommodate the increasing workforce. A 2024 study found that 55% of the Bangladeshi youth wished to leave the country due to the rising unemployment rate. Unemployment was one of the core factor behind the July Revolution of 2024.Corruption
Corruption remains a major issue in the country. Bangladesh ranked 151st out of 180 countries in the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index in 2024, slipping from 149 in 2023. The issue of corruption took a central stage in election campaigns.Extortionism
ism in the country grew unprecedentedly in the aftermath of the July Revolution. The parties like BNP and NCP faced heavy criticism for involvement with extortion. The BNP particularly faced backlash for its leaders involvement in various extortion scandals.Proportional representation
emerged as a key issue among political parties in the election campaigns. The existing first-past-the-post electoral system has been criticised as disproportional and a key driver of political deadlock in the country. Some of the leading minor parties, including National Citizen Party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Gono Odhikar Parishad, Amar Bangladesh Party etc., had been in staunch opposition to the system and in support of PR, where the BNP remains a supporter of FPTP.A Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik opinion poll conducted on 1,373 person between May and July 2025 found that 71% people in the country support PR in the proposed upper house of the Jatiya Sangsad.
Eight parties led by Jamaat-e-Islami organized mass demonstrations in Dhaka in support of PR on 11 November 2025. It's leaders also warned general election not to take place before a referendum on July Charter.