Bangladesh’s Corrupt Commission Betrays All: Delay Polls To Purge Rot – OpEd

In three days, on February 12, 2026, Bangladesh is scheduled to walk into a voting booth that is built on a foundation of lies. This headfirst rush towards the 13th Parliamentary Election looks less like a democratic milestone and more like a dangerous relapse. The institution tasked with overseeing this monumental exercise, the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC), is not a neutral referee but a crime scene. For years, this body did not just fail to stop electoral fraud; it presided over a system repeatedly accused of manipulating outcomes. The ghosts of the 2018 and 2024 elections still haunt the corridors of the EC. To hold an election now, before this institution has been stripped down to the studs and rebuilt, is to betray the as many as 1,400 people who were killed, according to UN estimates reported by the Associated Press, during the uprising that sought to dismantle this very machinery of deception.

The evidence of the Commission's complicity is not subtle; it is staggering. We need only look at the 2018 election, where Transparency International Bangladesh documented irregularities in 47 out of 50 constituencies surveyed, including sealed ballot papers on the night before voting in 33 constituencies. The Commission did not meaningfully address these findings. Then came the 2024 farce, where the EC oversaw a contest devoid of real opposition. The BNP accused the ruling Awami League of backing “dummy” independent candidates to simulate competition—an allegation the Awami League denied. This was not merely administrative failure; it represented a profound erosion of constitutional credibility. Furthermore, the rot is financial as well as political. Questions have also been raised about the Commission’s finances, including reporting that senior officials pocketed over Tk 20 million allocated for so-called “special talks” linked to election training programmes.

The interim government, led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, has correctly identified this rot. They have formed an Electoral System Reform Commission and launched a probe into the irregularities of the last three elections. However, the timeline does not match the magnitude of the task. You cannot purge a decade and a half of systemic corruption in a few months. The July National Charter, meant to codify these reforms, was only signed by political parties in late 2025, and even then, key players like the BNP issued notes of dissent on crucial structural changes. The bureaucracy that manages the elections on the ground – the Deputy Commissioners and local police chiefs – remains largely unchanged from the previous political era. To ask this compromised workforce to deliver a fair vote next week is a gamble that Bangladesh cannot afford to take.

Public trust in the electoral system has been profoundly negative for years. The people of Bangladesh do not see the Election Commission as a guardian of their rights; they see it as an arm of the autocracy that oppressed them. If the polls proceed on February 12 without a complete, visible purge of this apparatus, the resulting government will be born with a birth defect. It will be viewed with suspicion from day one. When, not if, allegations of rigging surface, the public will not wait for the courts – they will return to the streets. The cycle of revolt, collapse, and violence that defined the post-2024 period will begin anew.

A delay of six to twelve months is the only pragmatic path to salvation. This pause allows the Reform Commission to finish its work, ensuring that the new Election Commission is not just a shuffling of chairs, but a new institution with teeth. It provides time to prosecute the officials responsible for the 2018 and 2024 frauds, sending a clear message that election theft is a crime, not a career path. It allows for the full implementation of the National Charter, ensuring that all political parties are bound by the same rules before a single ballot is cast.

The rush to February 12 is driven by a desire for normalcy, but a fraudulent election brings no normalcy – it brings only a pause before the next explosion. The martyrs of the uprising did not die for a scheduled date; they died for a true vote. The Election Commission, in its current state, is incapable of delivering that. Delay the polls. Purge the rot. Only then can the nation vote with its head held high, knowing that the box they are stuffing is a vessel of their will, not a coffin for their democracy.