DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT: Parties have recalibrated their messages to reach young voters, taking campaigns online and investing heavily in content on Facebook and TikTok
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AFP, DHAKA
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Millions of young Bangladeshis are today to vote for the first time in a landmark election to determine the country’s leadership following a 2024 student-led uprising that ended former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic rule.
The vote is also to include a landmark referendum for sweeping democratic reforms, which the interim government says is designed to prevent a return to autocratic one-party rule
Young people aged 18 to 37 make up 44 percent of the country’s 129 million voters, with many saying they had never voted during Hasina’s 15-year iron-fisted tenure.
Election officials and security personnel transport ballot boxes and voting materials to polling centers in Dhaka yesterday, ahead of today’s elections.
Photo: AP
Elections under the ousted prime minister’s rule were marred by allegations of widespread rigging and bans on opposition parties.
Faijullah Wasif, 33, a university official preparing to cast his first ballot, said he did not vote while Hasina was in power because he felt it would not make a difference.
“It was mainly because of fear and anxiety that I didn’t go,” he said. “I did not even feel interested.”
The demographic bulge of younger voters has forced parties to recalibrate their campaigns and messages.
The digital battleground has become central to the campaign and parties have invested heavily in online outreach, from Facebook videos to TikTok reels.
This election, Hasina’s former ruling Awami League has been barred.
Instead, the parties once crushed under her rule are running — the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies, and a coalition led by Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.
Ashfah Binte Latif, 21, a student at Dhaka University, said her parents had told her stories of past elections, pre-Hasina, when polling day was celebrated like a festival.
“Now that we have managed to change the system, I am very excited,” she said.
The National Citizen Party, formed by the student leaders who spearheaded the uprising, have allied with Jamaat-e-Islami.
Latif said she expected more from the young student leaders, but she is still eager for change.
“We expected young people to lead us — and in many ways, they did,” she said. “If they fail, it’s a failure for all of the young.”
The spark that ignited the 2024 unrest started on university campuses by students opposed to a quota system in the civil service, which they said excluded them from jobs.
Meanwhile, the US is planning to offer Bangladesh’s next government US and allied defense systems as alternatives to Chinese hardware, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Brent Christensen said in an interview on Tuesday.
Following Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, she has taken refuge in New Delhi, allowing China to deepen its influence in Bangladesh as India’s presence wanes.
China signed a defense agreement with Bangladesh to build a drone factory near the India border, worrying foreign diplomats. Bangladesh is also in talks with Pakistan to buy JF-17 Thunder jets, a multirole combat aircraft jointly developed with China.
“The United States is concerned about growing Chinese influence in South Asia and is committed to working closely with the Bangladeshi government to clearly communicate the risks of certain types of engagement with China,” Christensen said.
“The US offers a range of options to help Bangladesh meet its military capability needs, including US systems and those from allied partners, to provide alternatives to Chinese systems,” he said, without offering further details.
Washington would work with whichever government is elected by Bangladeshi voters, the envoy said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
