New Delhi: Bangladesh's chief election commissioner on Thursday (December 11) announced that the next general election will be held on February 12, dispelling some of the speculation over whether the South Asian country will be able to hold polls as promised by the interim government following Sheikh Hasina's violent ouster last year.

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus had said earlier this year that the elections will be held in February 2026 but did not specify a date.

The country's main active political parties reportedly welcomed Thursday's announcement, while Hasina's currently banned Awami League denounced the Election Commission for announcing the poll schedule even as the party's activities remain prohibited.

February's elections will also take place alongside a referendum on implementing the ‘July National Charter’, which proposes amending Bangladesh's constitution to bring in further checks on power among other measures, as announced last month.

Chief election commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin said on Thursday that nominations will be accepted until December 19 and may be withdrawn by January 20. Campaigning will begin two days later and end early on February 10.

Some 12.77 crore voters were eligible to vote as of November 18, Nasir Uddin said.

In his televised message he also said that the elections will ‘offer a rare opportunity to demonstrate institutional capability and rebuild public confidence’ and that they will occur “following decades of democratic struggle”, per the state-run BSS news agency.

Yunus welcomed the announcement. “The country is now moving forward on a new path after the historic mass uprising” led by students against Hasina's rule in July and August last year and “this election and referendum will strengthen that path, prioritise the will of the people and further consolidate the foundation of a new Bangladesh,” he said in a statement.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and the National Citizen Party that is led by students who spearheaded the agitation against Hasina's rule all welcomed the announcement, although the latter expressed doubt over the Election Commission's “neutrality and operational capacity”, the Daily Star reported.

Hasina's Awami League rejected the schedule, saying that holding the election even as it is banned amounts to a “scheme to push the country and the nation into a deep crisis”.

The “illegal, occupying, killer-fascist Yunus clique's illegal Election Commission” is “entirely biased” and a free and fair election cannot be held under its auspices, it also said.

A UN report earlier this year estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed and thousands more injured during Hasina's crackdown on the July-August 2024 uprising. A Bangladeshi special court, the International Crimes Tribunal, sentenced Hasina to death on charges of crimes against humanity last month following an in absentia trial – she is in exile in Delhi – that human rights groups have criticised as unfair.

While Hasina remains in exile, her long-time arch-rival and former premier Khaleda Zia of the BNP has been in hospital following a bout of serious illness last month. She was on a ventilator as of Thursday according to BSS.

Her son and de facto BNP chief Tarique Rahman, who has been in self-imposed exile in London since 2008, is expected to return to Bangladesh ahead of the elections. He addressed party workers following Nasir Uddin's announcement on Thursday and exhorted them to take the elections seriously.

Following the elections, if citizens vote ‘yes’ on the July National Charter referendum, a ‘constitution reform council’ will be formed to amend the Bangladeshi constitution while a new upper house of parliament which is to consist of proportionally chosen members will also be created.

The Awami League was not part of the negotiations on finalising the charter.

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