Campaign begins for Bangladesh’s general elections next month

Campaigning began on Thursday for Bangladesh's general election next month, under an interim administration following a mass uprising that forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India in 2024.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), kicked off its first election rally in the northeastern city of Sylhet, where prime minister hopeful Tarique Rahman delivered a speech, according to the party's official page on the US social media platform Facebook.

Earlier this month, he assumed the chair of the country's main political party, a post recently made vacant by the death of his mother Khaleda Zia, herself a former premier.

The party's secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, has also said that Rahman would become prime minister if the party wins the next general election.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman is also holding a rally in the capital, Dhaka.

Hasina's Awami League Party will not run in the election because the interim government has already suspended the party's registration for alleged crimes against humanity during the 2024 uprising in the country.

Bangladeshi voters will go to the polls on Feb. 12 to elect 350 lawmakers from nearly 2,000 candidates to parliament. A total of 151 seats is required for a majority.

There are more than 127 million registered voters, according to state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).

Bangladesh's Election Commission has scheduled parliamentary elections under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which was formed after the collapse of Hasina's government amid mass protests in August 2024.

According to the UN, around 1,400 people were killed during the uprising.

Since then, Hasina and her Awami League party have rejected the election roadmap, calling it illegal and vowing to resist it.