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General elections are expected to take place in Bangladesh following the overthrow of the government of Sheikh Hasina amidst the Student–People's uprising in August 2024. A constituent assembly election will take place before the general elections.[1] The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has established Constitutional and Election reform commissions for this purpose and announced will held on late 2025.[2]
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All 300 directly elected seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Constituency map | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Poll Event | Schedule |
|---|---|
| Declaration of the schedule | TBA |
| Application deadline for candidates | TBA |
| Scrutiny of nomination | TBA |
| Last Date for Withdrawal of nomination | TBA |
| Symbol allocation | TBA |
| Start of campaign period | TBA |
| End of campaign period | TBA |
| Date of Poll | TBA |
| Date of Counting of Votes | TBA |
| Date of reserved seats Poll | TBA |
The 12th Sangsad was dissolved by President Mohammed Shahabuddin following the resignation of Sheikh Hasina.[3] In June 2024, student protests erupted throughout the country, demanding the reform of quotas in government jobs. The protests were met with brutal crackdown by law-enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces, resulting in the deaths of many students. By August, the protests intensified into large-scale civil unrest against the government which eventually culminated in Hasina's resignation on 5 August.
Following negotiations between student leaders and the Armed Forces, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as Chief Adviser to head an interim government with a view to leading the country to new elections.[4]
The Awami League won the January 2024 general elections following a record low voter turnout and a controversial election, spite of which they formed a government.[5] The United States Department of State, in a statement, said that the election was not free and fair[6] and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office termed the election lacking the preconditions of democracy.[7] According to The Economist, through this election, "Bangladesh effectively became a one-party state".[8]
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded that the government hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the January 2024 elections.[9] This was rejected by Hasina, who vowed that "Bangladesh will never allow an unelected government again".[10] Hasina's resistance to a caretaker government arose following the 2006–2008 crisis, during which a caretaker government assumed military control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including Hasina and Khaleda Zia. [11] Zia was sentenced to prison for five years on February 8, 2018, for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage corruption case.[12] The sentence was then modified to 10 years.[13] 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.[14] He was sentenced to life in prison. As such, he was barred from running for office.[15] Zia was released by the President of Bangladesh following Hasina's resignation.[16]
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The 350 members of the Jatiya Sangsad consist of 300 directly elected seats using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) 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.[17] The electoral system has been criticised as disproportional[18][19][20] and a key driver of political deadlock in the country.[20] Some of the leading minor parties, including 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 proportional representation (PR), where Bangladesh Nationalist Party remains a supporter of FPTP.[21][22][23][24]
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| Alliance/Party | Flag | Leader | Seats Contested | Seats Contested under Alliance | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GA | AL |  |
Sheikh Hasina | ||||||
| JaSaD |  |
Hasanul Haque Inu | |||||||
| WPB |  |
Rashed Khan Menon | |||||||
| GP |  |
Arosh Ali | |||||||
| JP(M) |  |
Anwar Hossain Manju | |||||||
| BTF |  |
Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari | |||||||
| BSD-ML | .png) |
Dilip Barua | |||||||
| JF | BKP | Syed Muhammad Ibrahim | |||||||
| BJP(M) | Mohammed Abdul Muqit | ||||||||
| BML(B) |  |
Sheikh Zulfiqar Bulbul Chowdhury | |||||||
| LDA | CPB |  |
Shah Alam | ||||||
| BaSaD | |
Bazlur Rashid Firoz | |||||||
| RCLB | Mosharraf Hossain Nannu | ||||||||
| BaSaD–M | |
Mubinul Haider Chowdhury | |||||||
| GM | JSD(R) | A.S.M. Abdur Rab | |||||||
| RWPB | |
Saiful Haq | |||||||
| GSA |  |
Zonayed Saki | |||||||
| JP(E) |  |
GM Quader | – | ||||||
| BNP |  |
Khaleda Zia | – | ||||||
| Jamaat |  |
Shafiqur Rahman | - | ||||||
| IAB | Rezaul Karim | – | |||||||
| BJP | _Flag.png) |
Andaleeve Rahman | – | ||||||
| LDP | _Emblem_Flag.svg) |
Oli Ahmed | – | ||||||
| ZP |  |
Mustafa Amir Faisal | – | ||||||
| TBNP |  |
Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury | – | ||||||
| BKSJL |  |
Kader Siddique | – | ||||||
| BDB |  |
A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury | – | ||||||
| GF | .png) |
Kamal Hossain | – | ||||||
| ABP | Abdul Wohab | – | |||||||
| GOP |  |
Nurul Haq Nur | – | ||||||
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Opinion polls
| Polling agency | Fieldwork Date | Date published | Sample size | Margin of error | AL | JP(E) | BNP | IAB | Jamaat | Student supported–New Party | Others | Independents | None | Undecided | "Can't say"/No answer | Lead(pp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Inqilab[b] | 20 Nov — 5 Dec 2024 | 10 Dec 2024 | 6,036 | ± 1.2% | 5.58% | — | 61.08% | — | 14.82% | 8.11% | 8.22%[c] | — | — | — | — | 46.26 |
| BRAC Institute of Governance and Development | 15 — 31 Oct 2024 | 12 Dec 2024 | 4,158 | ± 1.55% | 9% | 1% | 16% | — | 11% | 2%[d] | 9%[e] | — | 2% | 38% | 13% | 5 |
| Formation of Jatiya Nagorik Committee, a political platform led by the student leaders on 8 September 2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| Bangladesh Speaks | 29 Aug — 8 Sep 2024 | 10 Sep 2024 | 5,115 (field) | ± 1.4% | 5% | 1% | 21% | 3% | 14% | 10% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 34% | 4% | 7 |
| 3,581 (online) | ± 1.67% | 10% | 0% | 10% | 1% | 25% | 35% | 1% | 3% | 3% | 11% | 0% | 10 | |||
| Average | 7.5% | 0.5% | 15.5% | 2% | 19.5% | 22.5% | 1% | 3% | 2.5% | 22.5% | 2% | 3 | ||||
| 2018 general election[f] | 74.96% | 5.22% | 11.73% | 1.47% | — | N/A | 1.76% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 63.23 | |||||
| 2008 general election | 48.04% | 7.04% | 32.5% | 0.94% | 4.7% | N/A | 2.94% | 0.55%[g] | N/A | N/A | 15.54 | |||||
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- The Daily Inqilab is a right-wing conservative newspaper known to have a bias towards BNP.
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