Bangladesh tightens security as it holds first election since 2024 uprising

Bangladesh is gearing up to hold its 13th general election, the first since the 2024 uprising that toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina’s “autocratic” regime and forced her into exile.

More than 157,000 police officers, backed by 100,000 soldiers and thousands of other security personnel deployed across the country, will guard Thursday’s vote, in which nearly 127 million people are entitled to cast their ballots.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by 60-year-old Tarique Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has emerged as the frontrunner in the polls.

Challenging the BNP and its allies is a broad 11-party coalition spearheaded by the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is seeking to expand its influence in national politics. The Islamist party was banned under Hasina but has gained influence since her ouster. The alliance also includes the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), created by leaders of the 2024 uprising.

Along with the parliamentary election, a referendum on political reforms that include prime ministerial term limits, stronger checks on executive power, and other safeguards preventing parliamentary power consolidation is also being conducted.

Vulnerable to violence

Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Muhammad Sanaullah said in a news conference on Tuesday that security cameras have been installed in more than 90 percent of 299 constituencies. Voting in one of the 300 constituencies has been suspended due to the death of a candidate.

Separately, Bangladesh’s police chief, Baharul Alam, said on Tuesday that more than half of the country’s 42,000 polling stations were flagged as vulnerable to violence.

Alam said police had assessed that “more than 24,000 polling centres have been marked as either high-risk or moderately risky” for possible unrest, violence or ballot stuffing.

“The location of some centres is very remote, and there is intense competition and hostility among candidates and their supporters,” he said, adding that 1,300 police guns looted during the 2024 unrest have still not been recovered.

“In high-risk and moderately risky centres, police will carry out patrol duty with body-worn cameras for the first time.”

Police records show five people were killed and more than 600 were injured in political clashes during the campaign period from December 11 to February 9.

Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra counted 158 people killed and more than 7,000 injured in political violence between August 2024 and December 2025.

Transparency International Bangladesh also raised concerns over the law-and-order situation, accusing parties of forming “mobs” and setting up roadblocks.

Alam said the police were determined to ensure the polls were peaceful, but said he accepted that distrust of his force remained.

“It is quite understandable why people do not trust the police,” he said. “Over the last 15 years, based on what we have delivered – in fact, for the last 150 years, our predecessors mostly beat people.”

Millions travel to hometowns

An interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has announced three days of public holidays, which started on Tuesday, for the election.

Thousands of people, including factory workers, were seen returning to their home constituencies, as there will be restrictions on public vehicles on the voting day.

Tabish Mahdi, a voter registered in a village in northern Rangpur district and working in the capital, Dhaka, said he could not manage a bus ticket despite several attempts.

“It seems people are so enthusiastic about this election as they couldn’t vote in the past election under the Sheikh Hasina regime, particularly like me,” he told the Anadolu news agency.

The election rush has caused traffic jams on some key highways connecting Dhaka and other parts of the country, local media reported.

Of the nearly 127 million eligible voters, one-fourth are first-time voters who dominated the protests in July-August of 2024 and now want a change in the political and administrative culture.

Public expectation, therefore, is running high that the vote could help reset democratic norms after more than a decade of disputed elections and shrinking political space. The transition is being overseen by the Yunus-led administration, which has assured a fair vote.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Yunus urged citizens to cast their votes, aiming to break the 17-year “silence” of limited voting rights under the previous government led by Hasina.

“I am not merely requesting you. I am demanding it. Set fear aside and bring courage forward as you head to the polling stations. Your vote will not only elect a government. It will respond to 17 years of silence, challenge unrestrained fascism, reshape the nation, and prove that this country will never let the voices of its youth, women and resilient people be silenced again,” he said.

The “future structure and direction” of the state will be determined through the elections and the referendum on constitutional reforms, he said, warning of a tough response to attempts to disrupt voting or any election violence.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: aljazeera.com