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 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 the leading role in achieving the independence of Bangladesh. It is also one of the two most dominant parties in the country, along with its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
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, the first president of Bangladesh. She served in the position of prime minister for over 20 years, making her the longest-serving prime minister in history of Bangladesh. Thus, she became the world's longest-serving female head of government. Her authoritarian regime ended in self-imposed exile following a series of violent protests in 2024.
Bangladesh elects on national level a legislature with one house or chamber. The unicameral Jatiyo Sangshad, meaning national parliament, has 350 members of which 300 members are directly elected through a national election for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies while 50 memberships are reserved for the women who are selected by the ruling party or coalition. The Prime Minister is the head of the government. The president who is the head of the state is elected by the National Parliament. The president of Bangladesh is a ceremonial post and does not exercise any control over the running of the state.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 1 October 2001. The 300 seats of the Jatiya Sangsad were contested by 1,935 candidates representing 54 parties and 484 independents. The elections were the second to be held under the caretaker government concept, introduced in 1996.
General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 December 1970 to elect members of the National Assembly. They were the first direct general elections since the independence of Pakistan and ultimately the only ones held prior to the independence of Bangladesh. Voting took place in 300 general constituencies, of which 162 were in East Pakistan and 138 in West Pakistan. A further thirteen seats were reserved for women, who were to be elected by members of the National Assembly.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 27 February 1991. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emerged as the largest party in parliament, winning 140 of the 300 directly elected seats. The BNP formed a government with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and on 20 March Khaleda Zia was sworn in for her first term as Prime Minister.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 12 June 1996. The result was a victory for the Bangladesh Awami League, which won 146 of the 300 directly elected seats, beginning Sheikh Hasina's first-term as Prime Minister. Voter turnout was 75%, the highest to date. This election was the second to be held in 1996, following controversial elections held in February a few months earlier.
General elections were held in newly independent Bangladesh on 7 March 1973. A total of 1,078 candidates and 14 political parties contested the elections.
The 1969 East Pakistan uprising was a democratic political uprising in East Pakistan. It was led by the students backed by various political parties such as the Awami League, National Awami Party, and Communist party of East Pakistan and their student wings, and the cultural fronts against Muhammad Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan in protest of the oppressive military rule, political repressions, Agartala Conspiracy Case and the incarceration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Bengali nationalists.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 30 December 2018 to elect 300 directly-elected members of the Jatiya Sangsad. The result was another landslide victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance led by Sheikh Hasina. The elections were marred by violence, and were widely considered by opposition politicians and the international community to be rigged.
Sheikh Rehana Siddiq is a Bangladesh Awami League politician. She is the younger sister of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the daughter of the first President of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She is also the mother of Tulip Siddiq, a British Labour Party politician and elected Member of Parliament and City Minister.
Monnujan Sufian is a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a former Jatiya Sangsad member from Women's Reserved Seat-41 and from Khulna-3 constituencies. She is a former State Minister of Labour and Employment.
Umme Fatema Nazma Begum, better known as Sheuly Azad, is an entrepreneur and politician, holding one of the seats reserved for women in the 11th Jatiya Sangsad, the Bangladeshi parliament.
Sheikh Anne Rahman was a Bangladesh Awami League politician who was a Jatiya Sangsad member for the reserved women's seat-19. She was related to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Faridun Nahar Laily is a Bangladeshi politician, entrepreneur, freedom fighter, and a former Jatiya Sangsad member from the reserved women's seat of the 12th national assembly. She was previously Member of Parliament in the reserved women's seat, nominated by the Bangladesh Awami League in the Ninth National Assembly. Faridun Nahar Laily is in her third term as the Agriculture and Cooperatives Secretary of the Central Committee of the Awami League. Before this, she was the Relief and Social Welfare Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bangladesh Awami League. She has previously held the position of Senior Joint General Secretary of the Bangladesh Women's Awami League.
Mostafizur Rahman Patal is a Bangladesh Awami League politician and the former Member of Parliament of Bogra-5.
Kamrun Nahar Putul was a Bangladeshi politician.
Dorothy Rahman is a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a member of the Bangladesh Parliament from the reserved women's seat-19.
Runu Reza is a Bangladesh Awami League politician and a former Jatiya Sangsad member from a women's reserved seat in 2024.
