General elections were held in Bangladesh on 7 January 2024 in accordance with the current constitutional requirement, stating that elections must take place within the 90-day period before the expiration of the current term of the Jatiya Sangsad on 29 January 2024. The Awami League, led by incumbent Sheikh Hasina, won the election for the fourth consecutive time with less than 40% of the eligible voters voting according to an Election Commission, which is run by the ruling political party.^[5][2][6][7] The party won 224 seats while independent candidates, most of whom were Awami League members propped up as dummy candidates to give a semblance of competition, won 62 seats.^[8][9][10]

Parts of this article (those related to vote counts) need to be updated. (January 2024)

Quick Facts All 300 directly elected seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2024 Bangladeshi general election

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All 300 directly elected seats in the Jatiya Sangsad 151 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	41.8%[1] (39.4pp)
First party Second party   Leader Sheikh Hasina GM Quader Party AL JP(E) Leader's seat Gopalganj-3 (won) Rangpur-3 (won) Last election 74.63%, 257 seats 5.22%, 26 seats Seats won 224 11 Seat change 34 15
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Sheikh Hasina AL Subsequent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina AL

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In the lead-up to the election, the incumbent government led by Sheikh Hasina cracked down on opposition parties and silenced critics of the government.^[11][12][13] Hasina's prime ministership has been described as authoritarian since being re-elected in 2008,^{[14][15][16][17]} and in 2011 removed the requirement that a temporary independent caretaker government be formed to hold elections. The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the elections (similar to in 2014 and in 2018) as they assumed that the election commission under the incumbent government were unable to organise a free and fair election.^[13]

A protest over the turnout in the election emerged as the Chief Election Commissioner, based on the data in his hand initially claimed that the turnout was 28% but later retracted from that to claim the turnout to be around 40%.^[9][7]

The United States Department of State said that the election was not free and fair^[18] and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office termed the election lacking the preconditions of democracy.^[19] According to The Economist, through this election, Bangladesh effectively became a one-party state.^[20]

The Awami League won the 2018 general elections and formed the government.^[21] The first session of the parliament sat on 30 January 2019. As the tenure of a parliament lasts five years in Bangladesh^[5] the current Sangsad is scheduled to expire on 29 January 2024.

The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded that the government hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the next elections.^[22] This has been rejected by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who vowed that "Bangladesh will never allow an unelected government again".^[23] Hasina's resistance to a caretaker government arose following the 2006–2008 crisis, during which a caretaker government assumed military control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia.^[24] Zia was sentenced to prison for five years on February 8, 2018, for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage corruption case.^[25] The sentence was then modified to 10 years.^[26] Khaleda Zia's successor as chair of the party, her son Tarique Rahman, was also found guilty of criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder for a grenade attack in 2004 that injured Hasina and killed 24 people.^[27] He was sentenced to life in prison. As such, he was barred from running for office.^[28]

In order to guarantee that the election will be conducted in accordance with electoral law and the constitution, the 2024 Bangladesh Election Commission was formed on 27 February 2022.^[29] It is responsible for announcing election schedules, outlining constituency zones, preparing electoral rolls, supervising the elections, announcing the election's results, and establishing election boards to settle any election disputes.^[30] It is chaired by Kazi Habibul Awal, Md. Alamgir, Anisur Rahman, Rashida Sultana Emily and Ahsan Habib Khan.^[31]

In the election, President Mohammed Shahabuddin and first lady Rebecca Sultana used postal ballot to cast their vote on 3 January 2024. It is the first instances of using postal ballot in the history of elections in Bangladesh.^[32]

The 350 members of the Jatiya Sangsad consist of 300 directly elected seats using first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies, and an additional 50 seats reserved for women. The reserved seats are elected proportionally by the elected members. Each parliament sits for a five-year term.^[33]

According to the data released by the Election Commission on 4 January 2024, the total number of voters in the next parliamentary election is 119,689,289 people. Among them, 60,769,741 are men voters, 58,918,699 are women voters and 849 hijra voters.^[34] According to EC, 28 political parties and a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting the election, of which 436 are independent candidates. Total final polling centres are 42,148 and final polling booths are 261,564.^[35][36]

The BNP has demanded that there should be a caretaker government during election season because, as Citizens for Good Governance founder-secretary Badiul Alam Majumder has claimed, every election in Bangladesh that was not conducted under a caretaker government has been marred by irregularities.^[37][22] Without a caretaker government, the BNP has stated its intent to boycott the elections. On 17 May 2023, BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said: "[Our] movement and elections cannot go hand in hand. Participating in elections under [the current government] means to validate them. We cannot continue our movement with those who compete in the elections when the leaders and activists are being arrested and harassed while protesting to free the country from this illegal government.  Rather, it is time to identify them and uproot them politically."^[38] On June 3, 2023, the BNP expelled 43 of its leaders for life as a result of their decision to participate in the Sylhet City Corporation election.^[39]

Jamaat-e-Islami was banned from participating in elections in 2013, and many of its former leaders have gone on to form the Bangladesh Development Party (BDP), which intends to participate in the elections. The president of the BDP, Anwarul Islam Chan, has denied any affiliations with the Jamaat, saying: "The post-liberation generation was born after independence. We are a political party and not interested in such issues" as opposing Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan.^[40][41]

The Awami League, on the other hand, has insisted that a caretaker government would be unconstitutional and that the Election Commission is independent and sanctioned by law.^[22][42]

The Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted "the electoral process will remain under strict vigilance, including by international observers as accredited by the Election Commission."^[43] Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen said on April 10, 2023, in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the independent election commission is key to holding fair, transparent elections.^[44]

Source:^[59][60][61]

More information Alliance/Party, Flag ...

Alliance/Party				Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats Contested	Seats Contested under Alliance
	Grand Alliance		AL			Sheikh Hasina	263	263	269
			WPB			Rashed Khan Menon	33	2
			JaSaD			Hasanul Haque Inu	91	3
			BTF			Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari	41	0
			JP (M)			Anwar Hossain Manju	20	1
			BSD-ML			Dilip Barua	6	0
	JP (E)					GM Quader	286
	TBNP					Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury	151
	UF		BKP			Syed Muhammad Ibrahim	20	20	38
			BJP			Mohammed Abdul Muqit	13	13
			BML (B)			Sheikh Zulfiqar Bulbul Chowdhury	5	5
	BNM					Abdur Rahman	49
	BSP					Sayed Saifuddin Ahmed	82
	BIF					M.A. Matin	37
	BML					Badruddoza Ahmed Shuja	2
	IFB					Bahadur Shah Mujaddedi	39
	ZP					Mustafa Amir Faisal	218
	IOJ					Abu Hasnat Amini	45
	BKA					Mawlana Ataullah	14
	BKSJL					Kader Siddique	34
	GF					Jakir Hossain	25
	GF					Kamal Hossain	9
	NPP					Sheikh Salauddin Salu	142
	BDNAP					Jobel Rahman Gani	6
	BDB					A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury	14
	BSM					Abdur Razzak Mullah	74
	BNF					M.A. Abul Kalam Azad	55
	BCP					Kazi Rezaul Hossen	116

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Few terms used in the following table are described as-

• Nomination Withdrawn means candidates withdrew their nomination before or on 17 December.
• Candidacy Invalid means candidates who are declared ineligible to contest by the EC.
• Disqualified means disqualification of eligible candidates due to inappropriate nomination submission.
• Candidacy Withdrawn means candidates who are on the final list or on ballot but won't be contesting or endorsed another candidate.
• Candidacy Cancelled means cancellation of candidacy of the candidates who are on ballot due to breaking election code.
• Didn't Submit Nomination Paper means candidates were nominated by the party but failed to submit their nomination paper on due date.

Approval ratings

Seat projections

On 5 January 2024, at a meeting attended by heads of missions from about 90 countries, Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary, Masud Bin Momen, invited foreign envoys to be part of the international team of observers for its general elections scheduled for 7 January 2024.^[67] A total of 127 observers from various countries, were present for these polls, including members from the European Union, The Commonwealth, the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF), the US-based International Republican Institute (IRI) , National Democratic Institute (NDI) and American Global Strategies (AGS); UK-based Conservative Commonwealth Association and other reputable organizations.^{[68] [69]}

After the vote on 7 January 2024, this election drew mixed reactions among international observers. Representatives of many international team of observers acknowledged that this election was conducted free and fairly and praised the role and efficiency of present Bangladesh Election Commission. Alexander Barton Gray, CEO of American Global Strategies (AGS) said "Considering the overall situation, all the observers present here agree that the 12th National Parliament Election of Bangladesh was held peacefully and with the participation of the common people".^[69] The CEO of the Central Election Commission of Palestine, Hisam M.Y Kuhail, made remarks during a media briefing in Dhaka. "The voting process in all the centers that we visited was very quiet and peaceful," Kuhail said. "The people of your country should be proud of holding such a peaceful election." When asked about the voter turnout, Kuhail avoided the question, stating, "We are here to judge the voting process, whether voters were allowed access to the polls or whether voting took place systematically.^[70]

The governments of the United States of America and Canada had separately confirmed, through official statements, that they did not deploy any election observers with their authority to monitor Bangladesh's national elections held on January 7. Despite that, a group of international observers were present at their own effort.^[71] However, some USA , UK based international team of observers expressed the views that this election was not free or fair.^[72][73] Local media in Bangladesh reported that the Hasina government lined up their supporters near polling stations when cameras and foreign election observers were near and had them disperse immediately afterwards.^[9] However, some election observers did report a peaceful environment at the polling stations on the day of the elections.^[74]

Election Commission Secretary Jahangir Alam has told that Mostafizur Rahman Chowdhury's candidacy has been cancelled for violating election norms and for threatening "law enforcement officials" just before polling officially closed. He was charged for these types of allegations in past too.^[75]