Observing Bangladesh Democracy’s Graduation Day
There are
lessons for UK democracy in Bangladesh’s remarkable election and referendum on
12 February 2026. Incredibly, in the UK on that same day, several local
councils and the government were citing ‘logistical reasons’ for delaying local
elections due in May. On 13 February, Vijay Rangarajan,
the chief executive of the UK’s Electoral Commission, criticised
this stance. With a judicial review scheduled for 19 February, the UK
government announced on 16th February a u-turn, withdrawing its
instructions to delay the local elections, which will now proceed
this May.
Yet Bangladesh’s
interim government, formed after the July 2024 student-led uprising against
Sheikh Hasina’s regime, had overcome all logistical
problems in an electorate of 120 million people to conduct a fair, efficient
and affordable voting system ahead of Ramadan and the monsoon season. Despite
the history of rigged elections, bans, boycotts and intimidation, the chief
adviser to the interim government, the Nobel Laureate Professor Yunus, and his colleagues had restored trust to the point
where the Bangladesh 2026 turnout was 60%, the same as at the 2024 UK general
election.
Similarly, it
defies belief that in last Thursday’s Gorton & Denton by-election,
Democracy Volunteers reported that individuals did not always get to cast their
vote in secret but had a family member with them. In Bangladesh a fortnight
before, there were multiple ways of cross-checking identity, face coverings had
to be removed and we witnessed the secret compartments within each polling
booth ensuring that individual rights to vote in secret were upheld.
Unlike Brexit, the Bangladesh referendum on constitutional reform
had 84 changes explained in advance and the vote was clear-cut, 60% in favour of the interim government’s proposals, not
surprisingly because of the widespread consultation process. Radical proposals
included the creation of a bi-cameral legislature and the restriction of Prime
Ministers to two 5 year terms.
Bangladesh allowed
their diaspora to vote in this election and in the
referendum, through a sophisticated combination of technological innovation and
authenticated postal ballots.
Our quartet
from Voice for Justice was among 500 international observers authorised by the Bangladesh Electoral Commission and given
access to all areas. Dr Hasanat Husain MBE, the
leading light in Voice for Justice, the global movement of Bangladeshis, was the
head of our delegation. This gave us the bilingual and cultural ability to
understand all-comers. Our group included a former MP in Keith Best with over fifty
years’ experience of visiting Bangladesh and in Colin Short someone with thirty
years’ experience as an electoral officer in Tower Hamlets, the spiritual home
of British Bangladeshis. We arrived on 8th February and were free to
roam around before, during and after election day.
Voting on 12th
February ran from 7.30am to 4.30pm. We were free to go anywhere but chose to spend
up to an hour listening to voters, officials, candidates and agents at each of
eight polling stations in the capital, Dhaka, a city of 25 million residents. Once
we had introduced ourselves to the presiding officer, we were free to speak to
anyone. It was moving to see the ballot boxes centre stage, with an opaque lid
and securely ties, accumulating folded white ballots for the election and pink
ballots for the referendum. Counts took place in the polling stations
immediately after voting ended. Indelible ink on left thumbs was one of several
measures to prevent the misappropriation of votes.
There was one exclusion. Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League was not allowed to contest the election, given
its failure to distance itself from her actions in ordering the shooting of
students in the uprising or from their party’s history of electoral malpractice.
It is not banned, however, and could participate in future elections. A new
museum of the uprising shows the scale and depth of torture and corruption under
the previous regime.
There were
many positive touches in the quest for inclusion. For instance, 25% of Bangladesh’s
population are illiterate so the use of different symbols
for each party, such as a football, including on their banners and on the
ballot papers, was helpful.
The main
example of innovative inclusion is that the 300 MPs are now going to select a
further 50 women to join the parliament, in proportion to the percentage of
seats won by the parties. Bangladesh shares the ‘first past the post’ system
but is prepared to innovate around it.
Inclusion was
also helped by combatting media misinformation. Even
some observers were deterred from travelling by false information promoted from
India alleging violence and danger. Those of us who went anyway were impressed
with the transparency of the Electoral Commission’s monitoring unit, countering
false stories.
Many voters were
dressed in their finery as if guests at a wedding, an Eid
celebration or a graduation. They radiated joy and were eager to share with
observers why they were so grateful for this opportunity to vote in a fair election.
In short,
this was Bangladesh Democracy’s Graduation Day.
A young
lecturer told us how her friendship group on Facebook showed their delight at
having voted. In advance of an Eid celebration, they
would share photos of the henna treatments of their hands. On 12th
February, however, they proudly showed to one another via social media those
indelible ink marks on their left thumbs, celerating
their participation in this historic opportunity to vote and change the
constitution. This was a day to rejoice in the evolution of democracy.
Simon Lee
is Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University Belfast, and was
part of the Voice for Justice delegation