Votes are being counted in Bangladesh after its first election since student-led protests ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
More than 2,000 candidates are vying for 350 seats in parliament, though none from the banned Awami League of Hasina, who fled after 15 years in power after a brutal security crackdown in which hundreds of protesters were killed.
The election pits the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) against a coalition led by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, which joined forces with a party born out of the student uprising.
Results are expected on Friday and there’s widespread hope among voters of a return to democracy.
For the first time since 2008, the outcome of an election in Bangladesh cannot be predicted with certainty. The past few elections were widely condemned as systematically rigged in favour of Sheikh Hasina.
By Anthony Solly
