Voters stand in the queue at a polling station on the day of the 13th general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on February 12, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Bangladesh deployed more than nine lakh security personnel across the country as the general election and referendum for the July Charter started on Thursday (February 12, 2026).
Bangladesh polls LIVE updates
The election process is unfolding during four days long national holiday, which was declared to ensure the peaceful conduct of polling that started at 7.30 a.m. Voting will continue till 4.30 p.m.
Chief Election Commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin addressed the nation on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) night and appealed to all parties to accept the result of the election without resorting to violence. However, reports have poured in from multiple locations across the country of activists of Jamaat-e-Islami getting caught with bundles of cash. The incidents came a day after a Jamaat leader was caught with nearly Taka 74 lakh in north Bangladesh.
Among top leaders, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) cast his ballot at Thakurgaon in north Bangladesh. BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman is contesting from Dhaka 17 in Gulshan neighbourhood of the capital, and Jamaat-e-Islami’s leader (Ameer) Dr. Shafiqur Rahman is contesting in Dhaka-15 in Mirpur locality. National Citizen Party’s Nahid Islam, who is being supported by the 11 party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami is contesting from Dhaka – 11 constituency.
A significant contest will take place in Dhaka-8, where BNP’s strongman Mirza Abbas is being challenged by National Citizen Party’s Nasiruddin Patowary. Dhaka-8 is the seat where young Islamist Sharif Osman Hadi was planning to contest before he was shot and killed in December. Mr. Patowary’s challenge is significant as he is being supported by the 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami.
Bangladesh’s previous election was in January 2024, when the chief opposition BNP boycotted. Sheikh Hasina of Awami League formed a government after the election, but was overthrown in a public uprising in July-August 2024.
Awami League of Sheikh Hasina is not contesting the polls as it remains banned, but the party’s stronghold Gopalganj was rocked by violence overnight, with at least ten cocktail explosives being hurled as multiple groups clashed. Both BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have accused Awami League of rigging the previous three elections of Bangladesh in 2024, 2018 and in 2014.
Published – February 12, 2026 07:35 am IST
