Voting started at 7:30 am in 299 constituencies for Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections and reforms referendum.
BNP’s Tarique Rahman and Jamaat’s Shafiqur Rahman cast early ballots in Dhaka.
First polls since Hasina’s 2024 ouster, with Awami League barred and 127 million voters taking part.
Bangladesh's interim government chief Muhammad Yunus and leaders of the country's two main political parties voted early on Thursday as polling opened for the 13th parliamentary elections.
According to PTI, the general elections are being held at the same time as a referendum on an 84-point reform package introduced by Yunus. The main contest is between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami, with the Awami League of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina now disbanded and absent from the race.
Voting started in 299 of the 300 parliamentary constituencies at 7:30 am local time and is due to run until 4:30 pm. Tarique Rahman, chairman of the BNP, which has emerged as the frontrunner, cast his ballot at the Gulshan Model School and College in Dhaka's 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 lay priority to improving law and order in the country so that people feel secure".
This is the first general election since Hasina was removed in widespread protests in August 2024. Shafiqur Rahman, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, voted 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.
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. PTI reported that 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, on the other hand, said he received "some unpleasant information last night which was not desired".
Interim government chief Yunus, along with his daughter, went 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 bring to an end the 18-month rule of Yunus's interim administration, which took office after the collapse of Hasina's 15-year-old regime. The now-disbanded Awami League has been kept out of the contest, with analysts noting that this has left a large segment of voters unable to support candidates of their choice. Yunus's interim government disbanded the Awami League and barred it from contesting the polls last year.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin said on Thursday that Bangladesh was holding the "World's largest vote in 2026" while stating that the polling was underway in a free, fair and peaceful environment. "We are happy with the situation," he told reporters after casting his vote at Dhaka's Eskaton Garden High School centre.
Both the BNP and Jamaat had earlier called on their supporters to form queues at polling centres from before dawn to prevent any attempts by rivals to manipulate votes. As reported by PTI, 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 800,000 expatriate Bangladeshis who registered with the poll body will be able to vote through an IT-based postal ballot system.
(With inputs from PTI)
