A new Bangladesh: Interim government chief Yunus casts his vote, says celebrate the nation’s birthday
Dhaka. Top leaders of the country’s two main rival parties as well as interim government chief Mohammad Yunus cast their votes on Thursday as voting began in Bangladesh’s crucial 13th parliamentary election. These general elections are being held simultaneously with the referendum on Bangladesh’s complex 84-point reform package.
In the absence of Hasina’s now dissolved Awami League, the main contest is between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami. Bangladesh’s interim government led by chief adviser Mohammad Yunus dissolved Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League last year and banned the party from contesting elections.
Voting for 299 out of 300 parliamentary seats across the country began at 7:30 am (local time) and will continue till 4:30 pm. Counting of votes is likely to begin immediately after polling ends. BNP President Tariq Rahman cast his vote at the Gulshan Model School and College Center in Dhaka’s residential Gulshan area. Rehman has emerged as the party’s main candidate.
“I have exercised my constitutional right to vote,” Rehman said while coming out of the polling booth. The people of Bangladesh have been waiting for this day for more than a decade.” He said that if elected to power, ”we will give priority to improving law and order in the country so that people feel safe.”
This is the first general election since Hasina was ousted from power in August 2024 amid widespread nationwide protests. Shafiqur Rehman, chief of BNP’s former ally and now arch rival Jamaat-e-Islami, cast his vote at Monipur High School and College. Coming out of the polling booth, Shafiqur said that his party would accept the results if the elections were conducted in a fair manner.
Allegations of pre-poll rigging, bribery of voters, distribution of photocopies of ballot papers and clashes between rival candidates have been reported in Bangladesh’s mainstream media following which joint forces of the army and police arrested several activists. In a statement issued on social media platforms at midnight, the Jamaat chief urged people to ignore these reports and said, “Dear countrymen, ‘Lailatul Gujab’ (Night of Rumors) continues, please ignore them.”
After casting his vote, Shafiqur urged the media to play an impartial role. BNP chief Rahman, on the other hand, said he received “some unpleasant information last night which was not expected”. Interim government chief Yunus along with his daughter reached a temporary polling booth set up in a school in Gulshan area and cast his vote.
“Let us celebrate the nation’s birthday the whole day… today we have got a chance to build a new Bangladesh in every field,” he told media persons. The election is expected to end the 18-month rule of Yunus’ interim administration, which took over after Hasina’s 15-year rule ended.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasiruddin on Thursday said the “world’s biggest elections” are being held in Bangladesh in 2026. He stressed that the voting was being conducted in a free, fair and peaceful environment. “We are happy with the situation,” he told reporters after casting his vote at a polling booth at Eschaton Garden Secondary School in Dhaka.
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