Bangladesh to hold general election in April 2026 – DW – 06/06/2025
Opposition parties have been calling for a concrete timeline for a democratic transition after the ousting of Sheikh Hasina's government last year.
The interim government of Bangladesh on Friday announced that the next general election will be held in the first half of April in 2026.
"After reviewing the ongoing reform activities..., I am announcing to the people today that the next national election will be held on any day in the first half of April 2026," Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said in a televised address to the nation on Friday.
"I have repeatedly said the election will be held between December and June next year," Yunus reiterated.
Bangladesh's road to elections
Yunus said the country's Election Commission would release a detailed road map for the polls at an appropriate time.
Yunus' interim unelected government has been leading the politically turbulent South Asian state since student-led unrest in 2024 led to the ousting of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.
Hasina is currently in India, and is being tried in absentia by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). Officials are focusing on her government's crackdown against protests that marked the end of her 15-year rule.
Prosecutors have accused Hasina of directing the violent crackdown, including ordering the killing of student protester Abu Sayeed, the first to be killed during the uprising.
Bangladesh: Ex-PM Sheikh Hasina 'must face trial'
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Hasina claims the charges against her are politically motivated. Her party, the Awami League, has been banned, pending the outcome of the trial. The party was effectively barred from taking part in the election, after the elections commission suspended its registration last month.
Opposition demands clear election timeline
Opposition parties — including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — have been calling for a clear timeline for a democratic transition following the toppling of Hasina's government in August.
They have warned of instability should the vote not take place by December.
BNP's leader and former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is eligible to run in the next election after being acquitted at the beginning of the year in a 2008 corruption case.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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