8/2/26
The International Press Institute has urged political parties, the interim government, and election officials to demonstrate their commitment to press freedom by ensuring journalists are able to do their jobs freely and safely in the Bangladesh general election (due on February 12).
“We emphasise the critical role that a free media play in ensuring elections are carried out fairly and in line with democratic standards,” the IPI said in a statement.
The election will be Bangladesh’s first since longtime ruler Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country in August 2024 after her government’s violent crackdown on student-led protests. Since Hasina’s departure, an interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has led the country. The February 12 vote will determine the makeup of the new government.
In the months leading up to the vote, political tensions have flared, and attacks on members of the media have been on the rise. In December 2025, the Dhaka offices of two of Bangladesh’s leading newspapers, the Daily Star and Prothom Alo, were vandalised and set ablaze by a violent mob of protesters.
Between December and January, local rights groups documented 16 incidents of journalists being physically assaulted or otherwise obstructed from carrying out their work. Many local journalists fear they will be subjected to physical violence while reporting on the election.
Widespread attacks on journalists
“At this critical turning point for democracy in Bangladesh, IPI strongly urges all political parties to show their respect for freedom of the press – and for the rights of journalists to cover elections freely and safely,” said IPI Global Advocacy Officer Rowan Humphries. “This moment must be used to reverse years of democratic backsliding – marked by growing attacks on the media – and to show leadership in the region by safeguarding democratic processes and rights.”
Under Hasina’s 15-year rule, the space for free media in Bangladesh shrank considerably. IPI monitoring data documented widespread physical, verbal, and online threats and attacks on journalists. Many cases of assaults, and even killings, of journalists were treated with impunity. The Hasina government also abused judicial levers, including the draconian now-repealed Digital Security Act, to target and silence critical media.
The Yunus government has been criticized for failing to take meaningful action to curb press freedom violations in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh on edge over election uncertainty
By CJA Executive Committee member SYED BADRUL AHSAN
Political uncertainty keeps Bangladesh in its grip, indeed threatens to deepen as February 12 approaches. The general election scheduled for the day has not been able to arouse the enthusiasm of the electorate given that the country’s largest political party, the Awami League, has been forced into staying out of the vote by the current interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus.
The regime, one might add, has been in office since August 2024 in what is patently a vacuum. It is not based on any provision of the law or the constitution and has regularly been berated for the illegitimacy it symbolises.
That said and done, political parties like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which was last in power in 2001-2006, and the religious fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, are engaged in what has been shaping up as a desperate campaign to come by a majority in parliament through the vote on February 12. Ironically, the BNP and the Jamaat, once associates in opposition and in government, have now chosen to go their different ways in politics.
In the absence of the Awami League, both parties see an opportunity to win the election and ascend to power. For the Jamaat, which was formed in 1941 by Moulana Syed Abul A’ala Maududi and which has since 1947 earned a controversial reputation in both Pakistan and Bangladesh owing to its violent politics, its chances of going to power and governing Bangladesh after February 12 is what has its followers enthused.
“The interim regime has been unable, as it has been unable in the past eighteen months, to ensure law and order in the country.”
Meanwhile, Tareque Rahman, the leader of the BNP and son of the late military ruler Ziaur Rahman and the late prime minister Khaleda Zia, has ruled out the possibility of any coalition with the Jamaat after the election. The Jamaat had earlier floated the idea of a coalition, which now has effectively been shot down by Rahman. Intriguingly, despite all these election-related activities in Bangladesh and with only a few more days to go before February 12, sceptics continue to voice their doubts about the elections actually coming to pass on the day.
The reasons are not hard to spot. In the past few days, incidents of violence have registered a rise in the country. Politicians taking part in the election have increasingly been strident in their denunciations of one another’s point of view. On the streets, followers of a murdered fundamentalist activist have been engaging in running battles with the police, with some of them even vowing not to allow the election to be held. The interim regime has been unable, as it has been unable in the past eighteen months, to ensure law and order in the country. The failure is attributed to the incompetence of those who have held power since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
What might be the scenario if the election, warts and all, is gone through on February 12? Predictions speak of the BNP squeaking through to a victory. Some observers feel the Jamaat may come out on top with a small majority. Whatever the outcome of the vote might be, political and social stability taking hold in Bangladesh is clearly a remote possibility. The government which takes charge after February 12 will be an emasculated one owing not only to its small majority but also the sniping that will come from the party that loses the election.
Threat of street violence
Much as citizens would like peace of a kind to descend on the country a day after the election, there looms the bigger threat of street violence upsetting an already fragile situation in Bangladesh. Then comes the question of when, if at all, Muhammad Yunus and his council of advisors will hand over power to elected politicians. When might the new parliament be convened? Again a question looming over the country.
If the elections go ahead on February 12, a vast space on the political landscape will remain empty owing to the absence of the roughly 35 per cent to 40 per cent of supporters of the former ruling party, the Awami League, at the vote. Post-election volatility, with supporters of Sheikh Hasina making circumstances uncomfortable for a new government sworn in after February 12, could lead to a worsening of the situation. As such, a weak and embattled government formed after February 12 could well be compelled into taking steps towards having a new caretaker government, based on the constitution, take over and prepare the country for a fresh election that is free, fair and inclusive.
All of these thoughts are up in the air. For Bangladesh’s citizens, an election where inclusivity is a missing factor militates against the long tradition of electoral politics they have experienced since 1954, when a broad coalition of opposition parties banded together and ousted the ruling Muslim League government in East Bengal (today’s Bangladesh) at the ballot box.
