In a dramatic escalation of pre-election friction, Bangladesh’s Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) on Sunday surrounded the Election Commission office in Agargaon, Dhaka, protesting deeply flawed postal ballot practices and institutional bias. This comes amid broader political discord as the country gears up for polls on February 12, 2026.
Hundreds of JCD supporters, spearheaded by President Rakibul Islam, converged near the EC building, decrying decisions tainted by political interference. Security was beefed up with police, RAB, navy, and Ansar units on high alert, backed by riot vehicles and water cannons to avert violence.
The blockade stems from three core complaints: the EC’s allegedly prejudiced postal ballot framework, secretive decision-making infiltrated by politics, and a provocative notification on Shahjalal University student polls, seen as beholden to one party’s agenda.
Rakibul Islam charged that despite proposed fixes, the EC bowed to a specific group’s provocations on ballots. He slammed the distribution method as insecure, equating it to abandoned hostel mail accessible to all. Islam spotlighted an instance where 160 ballots shared a single box, later doled out to unauthorized voters.
Fueling the fire was a widely shared video of mass postal ballots dispatched to a single Bahrain site, prompting EC rebuttals. Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmad attributed it to Universal Postal Union logistics and Middle Eastern postal quirks, where 160 forms aggregated in one package.
These protests reflect simmering discontent with electoral integrity, exacerbated by party infighting. As tensions mount, the EC must navigate this crisis to safeguard the upcoming vote’s legitimacy, or risk prolonged instability in Bangladesh’s volatile political arena.