Bangladesh is holding its first parliamentary elections since the Genji Rebellion of July-August 2024 on Thursday. The silence period began at 7:30 am local time on Tuesday.

Bangladesh, which has 127 million voters, is going to hold its first election since the Genji rebellion in July-August 2024.

According to the Election Commission, 56 million voters are between the ages of 18 and 37. Of these, 45 million are new voters. 

Out of the total 350 seats in Bangladesh's parliament, 300 seats will now be up for election.  50 seats are reserved for women. Their candidates are selected here based on party shares. 

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) has concluded that the election atmosphere is very positive. 

"We are talking to candidates and officials in all districts and areas of the country and the atmosphere is normal and very positive," chief observer Ivars Ijabs told a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday morning.  He expressed hope that the election will be fearless and neutral.

The European Union has sent its largest election observation mission to Bangladesh to date, with more than 200 observers. At least 60 long-term observers have been working in the region since early January. Observers from Norway, Switzerland and Canada are also participating in the elections.

Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won two-thirds of the vote in the last three elections in Bangladesh in 2014, 2018 and 2024.

The Awami League's main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the elections. Similarly, the country's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was barred from contesting the elections. That raised questions about the fairness of the elections.

On 5 July 2024, a Bangladesh court ordered the reinstatement of the 30 percent quota system set aside for the families of freedom fighters in the civil service. With this, the students started the movement. They demanded that the quota system be abolished, government interference in all institutions of the country including the courts, corruption, nepotism and unemployment should end.

This system was introduced in 1971 to secure the future of the families of those who fought in the freedom struggle before the formation of Bangladesh. However, in recent years, Sheikh Hasina was accused of misusing it as a weapon to please her workers. Because most of the families who fought in the freedom struggle were organized in the Awami League.

Throughout the month of June, students held peaceful demonstrations at various universities. Even after the nearly three-week Eid vacation began in July, students continued to gather at Dhaka University and various other educational institutions. The United Nations Human Rights Office estimates that about 1,400 people may have been killed in the government's repression. As the movement spread nationwide, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5. A new elected government was formed in Bangladesh under the chairmanship of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus.

Last November, the International Tribunal in Dhaka sentenced Hasina to death for inhumane repression of the movement. Since then, Bangladesh has been pressuring India to extradite Hasina.

Hasina's party, the Awami League, is banned from this election. Many of its leaders are still in jail. Some are in exile. Some have filed nominations for other smaller parties or as independents. Ilyas Hossain Moni in Tangail-1 and Tarek Khan Himu in Tangail-6 have filed nominations for the Jatiya Party (Manju). Similarly, Ashraful Islam has filed his candidacy as an independent candidate in Tangail 6.

According to locals, Himu, the former vice-president of the district committee of the Awami League, went underground for a long time after the July movement. He was then arrested. After his release, he filed his candidacy from Anwar Hussain Manju's Jatiya Party. 'The Awami League did a lot of injustice to me in the past. I was removed from the district vice-president position and made former state minister Asanul Islam Titu.'

The direct benefit of the Awami League being deprived of contesting the elections is seen to be the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami. These two parties have the most momentum in Bangladesh. These parties are also influential in terms of mass organization. But there is doubt that the leadership of these two parties can do justice to the essence of the Genji movement. The BNP, founded in 1978, has come to power several times before. But the leadership of the party and the government is in the hands of the family of former President Ziyur Rahman. Jamaat-e-Islami, which was founded by Syed Abud Ala Maududi in 1941 during the British colonial period, has been active in Bangladesh since 1978 as a political party.

When Ziyur's wife Zia Khalida was elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the first time in 1991, Jamaat voted in support in parliament. In 2001, Jamaat also entered the government during Khalida's second term. It is now the BNP's main competitor.

Khalida's son Tariq Rahman, who had been in London for 17 years, returned home after the Gen-Zee uprising. The party has nominated 60-year-old Rahman, who is currently the chairman of the BNP, as the future prime minister.

Jamaat is led by 67-year-old Safiqar Rahman. This party is the main competitor of the BNP. Rahman has formed a grand alliance in this election, including forces that do not share his views. But sadly, no woman candidate has been fielded in any constituency.

‘It is not possible for a woman to lead. Allah has created everyone in his own image. We cannot change what Allah has created,’ he said in an interview uploaded on Al Jazeera English’s YouTube channel on January 29.

He claimed that women cannot work as expected in leadership due to family responsibilities such as giving birth to children, breastfeeding and taking care of the family.

The unnatural alliance between the National Citizens Party (NCP) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which were formed by students at the forefront of the 2024 uprising, has been seen as another irony.  Student protester Nazifa Jannat said, “The NCP had promised reforms, inclusion and many other things.  But to form an alliance with a party that has not fielded a single woman candidate is a betrayal.  It is a shameful incident. .”  Sadman Mujtaba Rafid, who is at the forefront of the student movement, told Reuters, “We had a dream of a country where all people would have equal opportunities regardless of gender, caste, religion.  But in the current situation, that dream is very far away. 

Naomi Hussain, a professor of development studies, said that students have joined the Jamaat because security concerns are the main reason. “Some NCP members can win by forming an alliance with the Jamaat,” she told CNN. “Having a parliament can provide security in the violent political environment of Bangladesh. Leaders fear that if they do not win parliament, they will be weakened tomorrow.”