Bangladesh voted on Thursday in its first election since a deadly 2024 uprising, as parties crushed under Sheikh Hasina’s rule return to the fray with a powerful political heir facing a coalition.
Voters lined up outside polling stations in Dhaka in the hugely anticipated election, while key party leaders have raised fears of threats or “conspiracies” to derail the vote.
It is the world’s first election after a revolution led by under-30s, or Gen Z, to be followed by Nepal next month.
With around 128 million people eligible to vote, turnout reached a high 32.88 per cent by noon at about three-fourths of the 42,651 polling centres across the country, Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Election Commission, told reporters.
More than 300,000 soldiers and police are deployed countrywide, with UN experts warning ahead of voting of “growing intolerance, threats and attacks”, and a
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