Bangladesh set to vote on democratic reform charter

Bangladesh votes on Thursday in the first parliamentary elections since a 2024 uprising ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year iron-fisted rule — and also holds a landmark referendum for sweeping democratic reforms. The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year old Nobel Peace Prize winner, says the reform charter is designed to prevent a return to autocratic one-party rule. The lengthy document, known as the “July Charter” after the uprising that toppled Hasina, proposes term limits for prime ministers, the creation of an upper house of parliament, stronger presidential powers and greater judicial independence.
Voters will be asked whether they approve the charter, which lays out wide?ranging constitutional, electoral and institutional reforms.
These include expanding parliament into a bicameral system, with a new 100-seat upper house allocated according to each party’s share of the national vote. It also includes increased representation of women in parliament, and the election of the deputy speaker and parliamentary committee chairs from the opposition. Along with the polls, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) calls it a “critical juncture for Bangladesh’s democratic and constitutional order”.
Yunus, who will step down after the vote, has promoted the charter as the defining legacy of his caretaker administration. “If you cast the ‘yes’ vote, the door to building the new Bangladesh will open,” Yunus said in backing the reforms. Hasina’s former ruling Awami League has been barred from taking part. A “yes” vote is backed by the key frontrunners, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and its rival, the Jamaat-e-Islami led coalition.
That includes the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who spearheaded the uprising. But many parties have also submitted notes of dissent over elements of the charter.
With key parties calling for a yes vote, many believe it will pass. But many ordinary voters say they are confused by the complexity of the proposals. “Knowledge gaps are huge”, Dhaka’s IID policy research centre warned on Tuesday, saying just over a third of people it had surveyed —37 per cent — know what the charter includes. Among those without formal education, that drops to eight per cent.
The IID said the results suggested “closed-door reform bargaining” was prioritised “over public engagement at the scale required for an informed, inclusive referendum.” The referendum, passed by a simple majority, notes that if approved, it will be “binding on the parties that win” the election.
But it would still need to be ratified by the new parliament.
Bangladesh’s Election Commission said on Wednesday it expected a strong voter turnout in the first polls since a 2024 uprising ended 15 years of autocratic rule. Many young people now in their 20s and 30s had been effectively deprived of the freedom to vote for their choice during Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted rule, commission official Abul Fazal Muhammad Sanaullah told reporters. Ahead of Thursday’s vote, “we see euphoria among the people,” he said.
According to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), average voter turnout in Bangladesh stands at 53 per cent. Turnout peaked in 2008 at nearly 87 per cent, when almost all major political parties participated under a military?backed interim government.
Officials said they remained alert after several polling centres in the northern town of Netrokona were torched on Tuesday, an incident the election commission described as isolated. More than 300,000 security personnel, including the army and police, will be on duty.