Bangladesh elections turn the page |
Bangladesh has delivered a political verdict that few could have imagined two years ago. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), once struggling, boycotting elections and facing mass arrests, has now secured a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Its acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, who had been in self-imposed exile for years, is now set to become Prime Minister.
This is not just a change of government. It marks the end of a chapter that began with the 2024 student uprising, which led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina and ended the 15-year rule of the Awami League. That movement, largely driven by Generation Z, had promised a new kind of politics: less family-based, less polarised, and more democratic and accountable. However, the election results have brought an unexpected twist: the return of an established political force.
According to the results, the BNP and its allies have won 212 seats, well ahead of the Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, which secured 77 seats. Tarique Rahman himself won from two constituencies, marking a strong personal comeback. Just two years ago, he was in London while his party was boycotting the elections and many of its leaders and workers were behind bars. Today, the situation has completely changed.
In these elections, the Awami League was barred from contesting. The party later called for a boycott of the polls. Sheikh Hasina, currently in exile in India, has described the election as a farce. Her absence clearly changed the political contest, giving the BNP a clear advantage. Jamaat-e-Islami, too, has achieved its best-ever performance, even though it had hoped to gain more support through its understanding with a newly formed youth-backed party.
The key point, however, is that voters have chosen an experienced and familiar political party over a new and untested alternative. The youth-led National Citizen Party, which emerged from the protest and unrest movement, who did play a role in bringing change to the country, but could not turn its street-level support into votes at the ballot box. Internal divisions and perhaps a controversial alliance with Jamaat diluted its appeal. Bangladesh’s Gen Z, as political pundits suggest, may have sparked regime change, but it has not yet built a durable political vehicle, perhaps due to a lack of vision and experience.
The outcome of the results reveals something deeper about Bangladeshi society,........