DHAKA: Bangladesh will hold national polls on February 12, the electoral commission announced on Thursday, the country’s first vote since a student-led uprising toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.

A referendum on a landmark democratic reform charter will also be held on the same day, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasiruddin said in a television broadcast to the nation.

The Muslim-majority country of 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Hasina was overthrown in August 2024, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

Her former ruling party Awami League has been banned from running.

The country’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus who returned from exile in August 2024 at the behest of protesters to lead a caretaker government, will step down after the polls.

“In this election process, we expect cordial participation and active cooperation of all political parties and rival candidates and of the voters,” said the chief commissioner. “I urge all to play a historical role in our democratic journey by making the upcoming 13th national parliament election a success.”

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by three-time former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is widely tipped to win. But Zia is in intensive care in Dhaka, while her son and political heir Tarique Rahman has been in exile in Britain for 17 years.

Khaleda Zia, 80, has suffered from years of ill health, including during her imprisonment under Hasina’s rule.

President plans to step down

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin said on Thursday he plans to step down midway through his term after February’s parliamentary election, telling Reuters he has felt humiliated by the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

As head of state, Shahabuddin is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but the role is largely ceremonial, and executive power rests with the prime minister and cabinet. However, his position gained prominence when a student-led uprising forced Hasina to flee to New Delhi in August 2024, leaving him as the last remaining constitutional authority after parliament was dissolved.

Shahabuddin, 75, had been elected unopposed for a five-year term in 2023 as a nominee of Hasina’s Awami League party. “I am keen to leave. I am interested to go out,” he said in a WhatsApp interview from his official residence in Dhaka, in what he said was his first media interview since taking office.

“Until elections are held, I should continue,” Shahabuddin said. “I am upholding my position because of the constitutionally held presidency.”

The president said Yunus had not met him for nearly seven months, his press department had been taken away and, in September, his portraits were removed from Bangladeshi embassies around the world.

There was the portrait of the president, picture of the president in all consulates, embassies and high commissions, and this has been eliminated suddenly in one night, he said. “A wrong message goes to the people that perhaps the president is going to be eliminated. I felt very much humiliated.”

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2025