Bangladesh to hold national polls on February 12

The 170m Muslim-majority nation remains still unstable after Hasina's ouster ended her 15-year rule

Bangladesh will hold national polls on February 12, its electoral commission announced Thursday, the country's first 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 Nasir Uddin 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 Awami League party has been banned from running in the election.

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.

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 and is yet to return.

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

Rahman, 60, known in Bangladesh as Tarique Zia, says he fled to London due to politically-motivated persecution.

He has said he will run in the polls and remains a favourite to be the next prime minister, but has not yet returned to visit his mother in intensive care.