Voters queue at a polling station on the day of the 13th general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 12, 2026. | Image Credit: Reuters
Bangladesh has deployed more than nine lakh security personnel across the country as the general election and referendum for the July charter begin on Thursday (February 12, 2026).
Bangladesh Election Live Updates
The election process is unfolding during a four-day national holiday, with polling declared to be peaceful and continuing till 4.30 pm, which started at 7.30 am.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin addressed the nation on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) night and appealed to all parties to accept the election result without resorting to violence. However, reports of Jamaat-e-Islami operatives being caught with bundles of cash have come in from many places across the country. The incidents took place a day after a Jamaat leader was caught with about 74 lakh taka in northern Bangladesh.
Among the top leaders, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) voted in Thakurgaon in northern Bangladesh. BNP President Tariq Rehman is contesting from Dhaka 17 in the capital’s Gulshan neighborhood and Jamaat-e-Islami leader (Ameer) Dr. Shafiqar Rehman is contesting from Dhaka-15 in Mirpur region. Nahid Islam of the National Citizen Party, which is backed by an alliance of 11 parties led by the Jamaat-e-Islami, is contesting from the Dhaka-11 constituency.
An important contest will be held in Dhaka-8, where National Citizen Party’s Naseeruddin Patowari is challenging BNP’s strongman Mirza Abbas. Dhaka-8 is the seat Sharif Osman Hadi, a young Islamist, was planning to contest before he was gunned down in December. Mr Patowari’s challenge is significant as he is backed by an 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami.
Bangladesh’s previous elections in January 2024 saw the boycott of the main opposition party, the BNP. Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League formed a government after the election, but was overthrown in a public coup in July–August 2024.
Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League is not contesting the election as it remains banned, but the party’s stronghold of Gopalganj was rocked by violence overnight, with at least ten cocktail bombs thrown in clashes between multiple groups. Both BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have accused the Awami League of rigging Bangladesh’s previous three elections in 2024, 2018 and 2014.
Published – February 12, 2026 at 07:35 am IST
