Bangladesh heads to the polls: What’s at stake for a nation rocked by Gen Z upheaval?

2026-02-10 - 08:25

The general elections and referendum will sway the South Asian country’s future governance, regional power equations, and trade trajectory General elections will be held in Bangladesh on February 12, the first voting after a violent uprising, led by Gen Z protesters, in 2024 that ousted the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The polls will be a pointer to the trajectory of a nation in flux, its governance in the future, and the power equilibrium in its South Asian neighborhood. The Hasina-led Awami League had ruled Bangladesh for 15 years from 2009 until August 2024, when the former prime minister and many ministers of her government had to flee the country. Now, the party is banned from participating in the election, raising questions over polling legitimacy. In a country with a population of around 173 million, there are 127.7 million registered voters, according to Election Commission figures. About 56 million, 44% of the electorate, are between 18 and 37, and nearly 5 million are voting for the first time. Voting will be conducted across 42,761 polling centers. Bangladesh has 59 registered political parties, excluding the banned Awami League. Of these, 51 are fielding candidates in the upcoming election. In total, 1,981 candidates are running, including 249 independents. The national parliament, the Jatiya Sangsad, has 350 seats: 300 are filled through direct elections, and 50 are reserved for women and allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote. Nation in Turmoil The polls are a result of the 2024 uprising, which Hasina and former officials of her government alleged was instigated by external forces as a “foreign-funded, meticulously planned regime change operation.” Read more New leadership was ‘imposed’ on Bangladesh – former Prime Minister Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding president and the principal orchestrator of Bangladesh’s separation from Pakistan in 1971, resigned on August 5, 2024. Within three days of her ousting, an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, widely known as the “banker to the poor,” was sworn in. Read more Soros, Clinton, USAID and Nobel laureate: Ex-Bangladeshi minister exposes forces behind GenZ regime change (VIDEO) Yunus had formed a political party, Nagarik Shakti, or Citizens’ Power, in 2007. Two years later, the Hasina government launched a series of probes against microfinance pioneer Grameen Bank, founded by Yunus. In 2011, Bangladesh’s central bank removed Yunus from