Politics of Bangladesh takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Constitution of Bangladesh was written in 1972, and has undergone seventeen amendments.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is a major political party in Bangladesh. Founded on 1 September 1978 by the late Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman, with a view to uniting people with a nationalist ideology, BNP later became one of the two dominant parties in Bangladesh, along with its archrival Awami League. Initially a big tent centrist party, it later moved towards more right-wing politics.
The Bangladesh Awami League, simply known as Awami League, is one of the major political parties in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played a large role in achieving Bangladeshi independence both before and after the Bangladesh Liberation War. It is also one of the two most dominant parties in the country, along with its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Throughout its tenure as the ruling party from January 6, 2009 to August 5, 2024, it has been consistently described as authoritarian and dictatorial.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, officially prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is the chief executive of the government of Bangladesh. The prime minister and the cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The prime minister is ceremonially appointed by the president of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of the most influential leaders in the Bangladesh Liberation War and the first president of Bangladesh. She has remained in the position of prime minister for about 15 years by abusing her power and manipulating the electoral process, making her the longest-serving prime minister in history of Bangladesh. Thus, she has become the world's longest-serving female head of government. Her authoritarian regime ended in self-imposed exile following a series of violent protests by the students in 2024.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the leader of Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990, ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1982 to 1983 and as president of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990.
The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League was a political front comprising the Bangladesh Awami League, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the National Awami Party (Muzaffar) and Bangladesh Jatiya League.
Tarique Rahman, also known as Tarique Zia, is a Bangladeshi politician and businessman, who is the acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since February 2018. He is the eldest son of former president Ziaur Rahman and former two-time prime minister Khaleda Zia. He is widely seen as a powerful figure in BNP and held several high-profile positions within the party, including the post of senior joint secretary general. In 2018, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 29 December 2008. The two main parties in the election were the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia, and the Bangladesh Awami League Party, led by Sheikh Hasina. The Bangladesh Awami League Party formed a fourteen-party Grand Alliance including Ershad's Jatiya Party, while the BNP formed a four-party alliance which included the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami. The election was originally scheduled for January 2007, but it was postponed by a military-controlled caretaker government for an extended period of time.
M Ilias Ali was a Bangladeshi politician and member of the Jatiya Sangsad (2001–2006) representing the Sylhet-2 constituency. He served as the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He, along with his personal car driver, Ansar Ali, went missing on 18 April 2012. Later that day, local police recovered his abandoned car near his residence in Banani neighborhood and found Ansar's cellphone inside. They have not been seen since. On the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, Netra News, an independent news platform in Sweden, reported on 21 April 2022, that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit, had carried out the disappearance. The platform cited leaked confidential documents and internal investigations documents from RAB to reach the conclusion.
Mohammed Zillur Rahman was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the President from 2009 until his death in 2013. He was also a senior presidium member of the Awami League. He is the third president of Bangladesh, after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman, to die in office, while being the first to die of natural causes.
Mohammad Abdul Jalil was a Bangladeshi politician. At the time of his death, he was a member of parliament for the Naogaon-5 constituency.
Amir Hossain Amu is a Bangladeshi politician, a former Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Jhalokati-2 constituency, and served as the minister of industries during 2014–2019. He is currently the coordinator and spokesman for the Awami League-led 14-party Grand Alliance.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 5 January 2014, in accordance with the constitutional requirement that elections must take place within the 90-day period before the expiration of the term of the Jatiya Sangshad on 24 January 2014.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is a Bangladeshi politician. He has been the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since 2016. He was a member of the parliament for Thakurgaon-1 constituency from 2001 to 2006. In that term, he was also appointed as the Minister of State in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and later Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Abu Hena Mohammad Mustafa Kamal commonly known as Lotus Kamal is a Bangladeshi politician, former cricket official, and businessman. He was a member of the Jatiya Sangsad representing the Comilla-10 constituency and a Minister for Planning as well as Minister of Finance. He is the owner of Lotus Kamal Group, which is a well-known Bangladeshi conglomerate. Kamal was awarded the Finance Minister of the Year 2020 by magazine The Banker.
The Awami League was a Pakistani political party founded by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in February 1950. Pir of Manki Sharif and Khan Ghulam Mohammad Khan from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) joined it soon afterwards.
Abdul Matin Khasru was a Bangladeshi lawyer and politician. He was a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Comilla-5 constituency during 1991–1995, 1996–2001 and 2009–2021. He served in the first Hasina cabinet as Minister of Law and Justice from 1997 until 2001.
Bangladesh Awami Swechasebak League is an associate body and the volunteer wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. Gazi Mesbaul Hossain Shachchu is the Acting President and Afzalur Rahman Babu the general secretary of the organization.
Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury also known as Nowfel is a Bangladesh Awami League politician. He is a former Minister of Education and a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Chittagong-9 constituency. He was the eldest son of Awami politician ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
