Dhaka: The top leaders of Bangladesh’s major contending parties, as well as interim chief Muhammad Yunus, cast their ballots early on Thursday as over 32 per cent of the electorate voted till noon in the country’s crucial 13th parliamentary elections.
The general elections are being held simultaneously along with a referendum on a complex 84-point reform package introduced by Yunus.
The contest is mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its once ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, in the absence of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s now-disbanded Awami League.
Voting began in 299 out of 300 parliamentary constituencies across the country at 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.
According to Bangladesh Election Commission Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, 32.88 per cent voter turnout was recorded at 32,789 polling centres till 12 pm.
Tarique Rahman, chairman of the BNP, which has emerged as the forerunner, cast his vote at the Gulshan Model School and College centre in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area.
“I have exercised my constitutional right to vote. For more than a decade, the people of Bangladesh have been waiting for this day,” Rahman said, emerging from the polling centre.
He said if elected to power, “We will give priority to improving law and order in the country so that people feel secure”.
Later, after visiting several polling centres in the capital, he said that BNP will accept the results if the election is held in a “free, fair, impartial manner and without controversy”.
“If the people cast their votes, there can be a democratic beginning in the country from today,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.
Expressing optimism about winning the elections, he said, “We are confident, Alhamdulillah, I’m optimistic about victory.”
The crucial general election is the first since Hasina’s ouster in massive nationwide protests in August 2024.
Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, BNP’s once ally and now main contender, cast his vote at the Monipur Uchcha Vidyalaya and College.
Emerging from the polling centre, Shafiqur said his party would accept the results if the election were held fairly.
He said he hoped the election would pave the way for forming a government that would not belong to any individual, family or party, but to the country’s 180 million people.
“We are optimistic about forming such a government. Pray for us,” he was quoted as saying by the BSS.
Bangladesh’s mainstream media was flooded with allegations of pre-poll vote stuffing, voter bribing, distribution of photocopied ballot papers and clashes among rival candidates, prompting joint forces of army and police to arrest several activists.
In a midnight statement on a social media platform, the Jamaat chief had urged people to ignore the reports, saying, “Dear countrymen, a ‘laylatul gujob’ (night of rumours) is underway, don’t pay heed to them”.
After casting his vote, Shafiqur urged the media to play a neutral role.
BNP chief Rahman said he received “some unpleasant information last night which was not desired”.
Both the BNP and Jamaat earlier urged their supporters to queue in lines at polling centres across the country since predawn hours to bar rival activists’ possible attempts to manipulate votes using various techniques.
Interim government chief Yunus, along with his daughter, travelled to a makeshift polling centre at a school in the Gulshan area and cast his ballot.
“Let us celebrate the birthday (of the nation) throughout the day…we have got today the chance to create a new Bangladesh in every sphere,” he told the media.
The election is expected to end the 18-month rule of Yunus’ interim administration, which took charge following the collapse of Hasina’s 15-year-old regime.
The now-disbanded Awami League has been kept out of the fray, with most analysts saying it disfranchised a large segment of voters, barring them from voting for candidates of their choice.
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote, Home Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the election is being held in a fair and festive atmosphere, except for one or two minor isolated incidents.
Sporadic incidents of violence have marred the polls.
In Gopalganj, three persons, including a 13-year-old girl, have been injured in an alleged crude bomb attack at a polling station, BDnews24 reported.
Separately, a series of hand bomb explosions took place outside a polling station in the Munshiganj-3 constituency, temporarily disrupting voting.
Speaking to reporters after casting votes at Dhaka’s Eskaton Garden High School centre, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said that Bangladesh has “boarded the train of democracy” and would soon “reach its destination.”
“We are happy with the situation,” he said, adding that Bangladesh was holding the “World’s largest vote in 2026” while asserting that the polling was underway in a free, fair and peaceful environment.
Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman urged voters to come out and cast their ballots without fear, expressing optimism that the election would be free and fair.
“Please come out of your homes without fear, go to the polling stations and cast your votes. This is a very important day for us,” he was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.
Speaking to reporters after casting his ballot, he said, “I have taken updates early in the morning about the situation across Bangladesh. The information I have received is that the election is being held in a very peaceful manner.”
A total of 1,755 candidates from 50 political parties and 273 independents are contesting the election.
Election Commission data showed that first-time voters made up some 3.58 per cent of the nearly 127 million voters.
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.
