After 17 years in exile, the leader of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) Tarique Rahman has returned to power following the country’s first national election since the bloody July Revolution of 2024. Registered voters also cast ballots in a referendum to approve constitutional reforms, with just over 60 per cent voting “yes” for the July National Charter outlining those reforms.
I was in Dhaka as an official election monitor. The atmosphere was peaceful and festive. The polls were credible and well managed. The BNP alliance secured 212 of the 300 seats in parliament, while the alliance led by its main rival, Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party, secured 77 seats, the largest showing ever for Jamaat-e-Islami at the polls.
The BNP government must now place human rights at the centre of its reform agenda and implement the referendum’s commitments.
The elections come a year and a half after nationwide, student-led protests demanding an end to the discriminatory quota system that excluded qualified young people from employment. Sheikh Hasina’s violent response to the protests led to a broader uprising against her repressive rule, and ultimately to her ouster. The vote marks a turning point. But political transition alone will not deliver justice.
Economic equality and an end to corruption were at the heart of the nationwide uprising’s demands. More than $230 billion was allegedly plundered from Bangladesh through corruption during the Awami League’s time in power. As the BNP takes office, it must establish proper checks and balances and root out corruption.
No political party in Bangladesh has been immune from allegations of graft—the very reason the BNP leader Tarique Rahman fled into exile 17 years ago were corruption charges which he claimed were politically motivated.
The day after the elections, at BNP headquarters in Dhaka, a BNP supporter told me he was hopeful about the historic win but acknowledged that some party members were previously “involved in extortion and corruption. … I am hopeful that the new BNP will be anti-corruption.
”Jamaat-e-Islami did submit complaints after the vote, stating: “The election day began smoothly, but the ending was not what we had expected. Fake votes, the circulation of black money, threats, assaults, and attacks marred the atmosphere.”
In the days ahead, the BNP should take all complaints seriously and continue to call for calm.
Party leaders must make clear—publicly and unequivocally—that violence, intimidation, or reprisals against the opposition will not be tolerated. A peaceful post-election environment will be essential to maintaining public confidence and demonstrating a genuine commitment to democratic norms.
With the Awami League effectively banned and its leaders on trial for their role in the violent crackdown on the protesters, Jamaat-e-Islami ran for the first time as one of the mainstream parties. In the past, its opposition to Bangladeshi independence and collaboration with Pakistan during Bangladesh’s war of independence had always placed the party outside the mainstream, and many of its leaders were prosecuted and executed during Sheikh Hasina’s rule.
It worked with the youth-led National Citizen Party and others to form an alliance. Despite the student-led protests during the Monsoon Revolution, the National Citizen Party only won a handful of seats in the election. Political parties that won seats in parliament should now urge unity and respect across political, religious, and ethnic lines.
According to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Bangladesh, more than 1,400 people were killed in July and August 2024 in protest-related violence. The July National Charter promises “justice for all victims” of enforced disappearances, torture, and killings
Reforming laws, policies and practices must also be top priorities, including for women and minorities. Securing women’s rights in the new Bangladesh will be especially challenging with the strong representation of Jamaat-e-Islami in the Parliament, since some religious leaders have called the reforms proposed during the transitional period to promote women’s rights “un-Islamic.”
BNP should ensure that women’s rights are fully protected in law and practice and reject regressive efforts to roll back progress toward equality. Only seven women were elected to parliament, six from the BNP and one independent, out of 85 women who contested the election. Jamaat-e-Islami did not field a single woman candidate.
Unfortunately, the recommendation by the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission to increase the number of reserved seats for women to 100 through direct elections was not accepted by all political parties. The July National Charter mirrored the Commission’s proposal, stating that “women’s representation in the National Parliament shall be progressively increased to a total of 100 seats.” It further provides that each political party shall nominate at least five per cent women candidates.
BNP should move forward with the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission’s broader recommendations, including ensuring equal rights for men and women and guaranteeing equal rights for women of all religions in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance.
According to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Bangladesh, more than 1,400 people were killed in July and August 2024 in protest-related violence. The July National Charter promises “justice for all victims” of enforced disappearances, torture, and killings. An end to impunity and abuse, through fair and transparent trials, must be at the forefront of the BNP government’s term.
The longstanding crime of enforced disappearance has been documented under both the previous periods of rule of BNP and Awami League. Parliament should pass the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance 2025, ensure it fully complies with international human rights standards, including abolishing the death penalty as a sentencing option.
Victims and their families deserve truth, justice, and reparations, not symbolic reform, and Bangladeshi activists and their families should be able to live free from the fear of enforced disappearances.
Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, who was himself forcibly disappeared for eight years from August 2016 to August 2024 and later won a seat in Dhaka-14 as a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate, said that enforced disappearance cases at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) should proceed without political interference. There must be a “full disclosure” under the BNP examining all senior leadership involved and providing answers for families, he said.
The ICT has taken a significant step by initiating proceedings related to crimes against humanity against army officers for enforced disappearances and torture, alongside senior officials from the Awami League government.
For these cases to strengthen the rule of law, the armed forces must fully cooperate with the Tribunal, recognise its civilian authority, and ensure that no individual –including army officers and other security officials--is shielded from accountability, now or in future proceedings.
Reparations for victims, genuine accountability, and clear guarantees of a definitive end to enforced disappearances as a state practice must follow, under the BNP or any future government. Only by confronting past abuses with integrity and resolve can Bangladesh begin to dismantle the entrenched culture of impunity.
The promise of the July Revolution will only be realised if the BNP government decisively ends corruption and political violence and repression, ensures real accountability for past abuses, and protects the rights of women and minorities in both law and practice.
* John Quinley is a director at Fortify Rights, an international human rights organisation.