The curtain fell on Bangladesh’s election campaign on Tuesday morning as political parties wrapped up weeks of intense electioneering.
In the final hours, leaders made a series of promises and pledges, leaving voters to reflect on those ahead of the February-12 national election.
The restriction on campaigning came into effect at 7:30am as per the parliamentary election code of conduct for political parties and candidates’ rule, 2025.
According to the code of conduct, any political party, candidate or any person on their behalf can’t carry out any sort of electioneering three weeks before the balloting day and the electoral campaign must be completed 48 hours before the balloting starts.
The official election campaign by political parties and candidates started on January 22 after the allocation of election symbols on the previous day.
The voting in Thursday’s election will start at 7:30 am and continue till 4:30 pm without any break.
The 13th parliamentary election and referendum will be held on February 12 in 299 constituencies across the country using transparent ballot boxes and ballot papers.
Voting will be held in 299 seats instead of 300 as the Election Commission cancelled the election in Sherpur-3 following the death of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate.
Ban on Vehicular Movement
The EC imposed restrictions on the plying of motorcycles across the country three days before and after the national election. Motorbike movement will remain prohibited from midnight on February 10 until midnight on February 13, according to the EC directives issued on January 27.
Besides, the movement of four types of vehicles —trucks, microbuses, taxi-cab and motorcycles — will remain suspended for 24 hours on election day.
Meanwhile, the restriction was also imposed on the movement of vessels on Election Day.
Besides, no candidate or their supporters will be allowed to set up election camps or conduct campaigns within 400 yards of any polling station.
Candidates or anyone on their behalf cannot use any vehicles to bring voters to the polling station on the voting day.
Law Enforcers’ Deployment
Nearly one million members from the armed forces and different law enforcement agencies remain deployed across the country for seven days from February 8 (Sunday) to maintain law and order as well as contain violation of electoral code of conduct in the referendum and parliamentary elections scheduled for February 12.
Besides, 1,051 executive magistrates were deployed throughout the country for the seven days from February 8 to 14 to prevent and punish the violation of the election code.
A total of 970,948 security persons were deployed from February 8 for election duty, according to the statistics of the Election Commission.
The security personnel include 100,003 Army personnel, 5000 Navy personnel, 3730 Air Force members, 37,453 BGB personnel, 3,585 Coast Guard members, 187,603 police members, 9,349 Rab members, 576,483 Ansar and VDP members, 1922 BNCC cadets and 45,820 Chowkidar and Dafadar.
According to a recent government circular, the armed forces, BGB, Coast Guard, Rab, police, Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and Ansar Battalions would work as mobile and striking forces to maintain peace and order in the election areas.
BGB, Rab, APBn and Ansar battalions would operate on district, upazila and thana levels, while the Coast Guard would be deployed in coastal areas.
Outside the metropolitan areas, a team of 16–17 police and Ansar members will be deployed at each normal polling station, while 17–18 personnel will be posted at every vulnerable polling station, according to the EC.
In metropolitan areas, 16 security personnel –police and ansar members– will be deployed at a normal polling station and 17 personnel at each vulnerable polling station.
In remote areas of 25 districts, a team of 16–18 police and Ansar members will be deployed at each polling station.
1M Cast Votes by Post
The Election Commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, introduced an IT-supported hybrid postal balloting system, combining digital registration with manual voting, for expatriate Bangladeshis living in more than 120 countries for the first time.
The new postal balloting system is also being used by government employees working outside their constituencies, polling officials and individuals under legal custody within the country. More than one million people have already cast their votes through postal ballots.
As of 8:00pm on Monday, a total of 1,031,269 voters including 511,757 expatriates cast their votes through postal ballots in the 13th parliamentary election.
A total of 1,528,131 voters, including 767,233 expatriates under the Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) programme and 760,898 government officials, polling personnel and prisoners under the In-Country Postal Voting (ICPV) programme, were registered for postal voting.
A total of 127,298,522 voters (in 299 constituencies) are eligible to cast their ballots in this election. Of them, 64,620,077 are male voters, 62,677,232 are female voters and 1,213 are third-gender voters.
The country has a total of 127,711,899 voters (in 300 constituencies) –64,825,154 males, 62,885,525 females and 1,220 third-gender.
Nearly 800,000 officials will be engaged in election duties in more than 42,600 polling stations in the 299 constituencies on Thursday next, while nearly another 800,000 security personnel will protect the polling stations.
Meanwhile, some 50,000 observers from 80 registered domestic organisations will monitor the election, while nearly 500 foreign observers are expected to oversee the election.
The Election Commission announced the election schedule on December 11 last year to hold the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on February 12, 2026.
