Next Bangladeshi general election

General elections are expected to take place in Bangladesh following the removal 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 that elections will be held in late 2025 or early 2026.^[2]

Next Bangladeshi general election

← 2024 December 2025
← outgoing members
All 300 directly elected seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Sheikh Hasina GM Quader Khaleda Zia Party AL JP(E) BNP Alliance GA Leader since 16 February 1981 8 February 2018 10 May 1984 Last election 224 11 Boycotted Seats needed 140 151   Leader Rezaul Karim Shafiqur Rahman Nahid Islam Party IAB JI NCP Leader since 25 November 2006 12 November 2019 28 February 2025 Last election Boycotted Deregistered New Seats needed 151 151 151
Constituency map
Incumbent Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus Independent (interim)

Background

Further information: Student–People's uprising

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 the Chief Adviser to lead an interim government with a view of 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-backed control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including Hasina and Khaleda Zia. ^[11] Khaleda 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] Khaleda Zia was released by the President of Bangladesh following Hasina's resignation.^[16]

Electoral system

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]} Besides that, students formed political groups like Jatiya Nagorik Party and Jatiya Nagorik Committee assumed to participate in the election.

Parties and alliances

  Grand Alliance

Party[25]		Symbol	Flag	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Bangladesh Awami League			Sheikh Hasina	TBD
	Workers Party of Bangladesh			Rashed Khan Menon	TBD
	GP			Arosh Ali	TBD
	JP(M)			Anwar Hossain Manju	TBD
	BTF			Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari	TBD
	BSD-ML			Dilip Barua	TBD

  Bangladesh Nationalist Party

Party[25]		Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Bangladesh Nationalist Party		Khaleda Zia	TBD

  Democratic United Front

Party[26][27]		Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Communist Party of Bangladesh		Mohammad Shah Alam	TBD
	Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal		Hasanul Haque Inu	TBD
	Gano Forum		Kamal Hossain	TBD
	Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal		Sharif Nurul Ambia	TBD
	Socialist Party of Bangladesh		Bazlur Rashid Firoz	TBD
	Oikya National Awami Party		Pankaj Bhattacharya	TBD
	Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist)		Mubinul Haider Chowdhury	TBD
	Revolutionary Communist League of Bangladesh		Mosharraf Hossain Nannu	TBD
	Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti		Shantu Larma	TBD
	Ganosanhati Andolan		Zonayed Saki	TBD
	Rastro Songskar Andolon		Hasnat Quaiyum	TBD
	Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab)			TBD
	Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh			TBD

Others

Party		Symbol	Flag	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Jatiya Party (Ershad)			Ghulam Muhammed Quader	TBD
	Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami			Shafiqur Rahman	TBD
	Islami Andolan Bangladesh			Syed Rezaul Karim	TBD
	National Citizen Party			Nahid Islam	TBD
	Bangladesh Jatiya Party			Andaleeve Rahman	TBD
	Liberal Democratic Party			Oli Ahmed	TBD
	Zaker Party			Ameer Faisal Mujaddedi	TBD
	Trinomool BNP			Antara Selima Huda	TBD
	Krishak Sramik Janata League			Abdul Kader Siddique	TBD
	Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh			Mahi B. Chowdhury	TBD
	Bangladesh Kalyan Party			Syed Muhammad Ibrahim	TBD

Opinion polls

Vote share projections

Polling agency	Fieldwork dates	Date published	Sample size	Margin of error	AL	JP(E)	BNP	IAB	Jamaat	NCP	Others	Independents	None	Undecided	"Can't say"/ No answer	Lead (pp)
Formation of National Citizen Party (NCP) by the student-citizen movement leaders on 28 February 2025
Daily Inqilab	20 Nov — 5 Dec 2024	10 Dec 2024	6,036	± 1.2%	5.58%	—	61.08%	—	14.82%	8.11%	8.22%[a]	—	—	—	—	46.26
BRAC	15 — 31 Oct 2024	12 Dec 2024	4,158	± 1.55%	9%	1%	16%	—	11%	2%[b]	9%[c]	—	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[d]					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%[e]	N/A	N/A	15.54

Schedule

Poll Event	Schedule
Declaration of the schedule	TBD
Application deadline for candidates	TBD
Scrutiny of nomination	TBD
Last Date for Withdrawal of nomination	TBD
Symbol allocation	TBD
Start of campaign period	TBD
End of campaign period	TBD
Date of Poll	TBD
Date of Counting of Votes	TBD
Date of reserved seats Poll	TBD

See also

• 2024 elections in Bangladesh

Notes

1. 5.05pp for "other Islamic parties", 0.19pp for "Leftist groups" and 2.98pp for "Others".
2. In a separate question, 40% of the respondents said that they'll vote for a student-led platform if its launched, while 44% said they will not endorse it. Among the rest 9% were undecided and 8% didn’t give any answer.
3. 3% for "other Islamic groups", 2% for "for a new political party formed by politicians", and 4% for "others".
4. Widely considered to be rigged.
5. "None of the above"