Bangladesh Election 2026Live Updates:Voting began on Thursday morning in Bangladesh's crucial general election. The voting started in 299 out of 300 parliamentary constituencies across the country from 7:30 am (local time) and will continue until 4:30 pm. The counting of votes is expected to begin shortly after the voting concludes. This is the first national election being held in Bangladesh after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a massive nationwide protests in August 2024. The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements, deploying nearly 1 million security personnel, the largest-ever in the country's electoral history.
A total of 1,755 candidates from 50 political parties and 273 independents are contesting the election. The BNP has fielded the highest number of 291 candidates. There are 83 female candidates. For the first time, nearly 8,00,000 expatriate Bangladeshis, who have registered with the poll body, will be able to vote through an IT-based postal ballot system. The 13th parliamentary elections are being held simultaneously along with a referendum on a complex 84-point reform package.
The contest is mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its once ally Jamaat-e-Islami, in the absence of Hasina's now-disbanded Awami League. Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus' interim government last year disbanded the Awami League and barred it from contesting the polls.
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Chief Advisor Yunus, who has promised to quickly transfer power to the elected government, has urged the political parties, candidates and other concerned parties to maintain restraint, tolerance and democratic behaviour on the polling day.
Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Machud said nearly 9,00,000 law enforcement personnel have been deployed to ensure security during the election. Authorities have deployed Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Rapid Action Teams (RATs) across key areas of the capital. For the first time, drones and body-worn cameras are being used for election security.
The Bangladesh Police said that they have provided a list of risk-prone polling centres to the EC, which showed that out of 2,131 polling centres in Dhaka, 1,614 were risk-prone. However, the army said they have identified two centres in Dhaka city to be "risky".
Ahead of the polling, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin had called upon the voters to cast their votes freely. He urged political parties, candidates, and voters to maintain a peaceful and cordial environment. He said that representatives from 45 countries and organisations, including election management bodies and international institutions, are observing the polls.
EC data showed that first-time voters made up some 3.58 per cent of the nearly 127 million voters.
Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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