[🇧🇩] Forming Election Commission/Conducting Elections

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Next election to determine nation’s fate for next 50 years: Fouzul Kabir Khan

The forthcoming election will determine the country’s destiny for the next 50 years, not merely the next five, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Road Transport, Bridges and Railways said on Friday. “This is because the...

en.prothomalo.com

Next election to determine nation’s fate for next 50 years: Fouzul Kabir Khan

Correspondent Dinajpur
Published: 09 Jan 2026, 19: 50

Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Road Transport, Bridges and Railways addresses an event held at Gor-e-Shahid Boro Maidan in Dinajpur on 9 January 2026 to raise public awareness about the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) election and the referendum Prothom Alo

The forthcoming election will determine the country’s destiny for the next 50 years, not merely the next five, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Road Transport, Bridges and Railways said on Friday.

“This is because the election will also involve a referendum,” he remarked.

He made the remarks on Friday morning at an event held at Gor-e-Shahid Boro Maidan in Dinajpur to raise public awareness about the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) election and the referendum.


“This election is not like any conventional election. All previous elections were held under political governments. This election is being conducted under an interim government. We do not belong to any political party. We are a government for everyone. As a government, we will not take sides for or against anyone. With the collective efforts of all of you, a credible election will be held, and those who are truly deserving will be elected as public representatives,” Fouzul Kabir Khan stated.

Referring to the referendum, the adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said, “There are four questions in the referendum. We have presented all four as a single package. If you want reform in the country, vote ‘Yes’. If you do not want reform, vote ‘No’. If ‘Yes’ wins, various reforms will be implemented.”

Describing the people as the most powerful force, Fouzul Kabir Khan said, “The day to demonstrate the power of the people is 12 February. The July uprising took place because people were unable to vote. Those whom the people wanted to elect were not allowed to be elected. The February election will be entirely different. Whoever you wish to elect, regardless of their party, religion, race or community, we want to see that person declared the winner. To ensure that people can vote freely and without hindrance, instructions have been given to the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police.”

Others who addressed the event included Abdul Jalil, deputy director of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Dinajpur deputy commissioner Rafiqul Islam; and additional deputy commissioner (general) Riaz Uddin.

Among those present were Rezanur Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation; Abdul Jalil, director general of the department of mass communication; Enamul Ahsan, deputy commissioner of Rangpur, and others.​

 

[Saif]

Deepfake and cheapfake fears in elections, 10 tactics used more

Digital literacy in Bangladesh is in a dire state. If AI-generated videos calling for election boycotts or damaging a candidate’s image are spread here, the impact could be devastating.

en.prothomalo.com

Deepfake and cheapfake fears in elections, 10 tactics used more

Mahmudul HasanDhaka
Updated: 11 Jan 2026, 12: 20

It was certain which party would win the most seats in Bangladesh’s 12th Jatiya Sangsad election held on 7 January 2024. The election became known as a ‘dummy vote’.

On the morning of the polling day, however, a fake or ‘deepfake’ video of Abdullah Nahid Nigar, an independent candidate in the Gaibandha-1 constituency, went viral. In the video, he was seen saying that he has withdrawn from the election, which confused many voters.

This is one Bangladeshi example of the use of deepfake videos in elections. A 2024 report titled The Influence of Deepfakes on Elections by the German organisation Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) says such incidents have occurred frequently in recent elections around the world.

The United States, Turkey, Slovakia, Argentina, Indonesia, India, Poland, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Zambia and France the list of such examples goes on.

The KAS report mentions the Bangladeshi case. Another example comes from the United States. In January last year, ahead of the Democratic Party primaries in the state of New Hampshire, a video of then president Joe Biden circulated in which he appeared to discourage voters from voting. The video was a deepfake.


The January 2024 incident in Bangladesh was fact-checked by Minhaz Aman, a fact-checker who is now head of research at the organisation Activate Rights.

He told Prothom Alo Saturday, that the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in elections has been seen in various countries. Deepfakes can influence voters’ choices in elections and also harm candidates in different ways.

In January last year, ahead of the Democratic Party primaries in the state of New Hampshire, a video of then president Joe Biden circulated in which he appeared to discourage voters from voting. The video was a deepfake.
The fact-checker said digital literacy in Bangladesh is in a dire state. If AI-generated videos calling for election boycotts or damaging a candidate’s image are spread here, the impact could be devastating.

At the start of 2024, AI was not as advanced or accessible as it is now. Today, fake videos, audio and images can be created using AI in such a realistic way that they appear completely genuine. This is known as a deepfake.

Another type is ‘cheapfake’, which is created using inexpensive software rather than AI. Cheapfakes are usually used to misrepresent events, such as spreading fake statements by copying photo cards posted on media outlets’ Facebook pages.

From what has been learned from speaking to fact-checkers, analysts and law enforcement officials, 10 tactics are most commonly used to spread disinformation in the country through deepfakes and cheapfakes.

These include attaching misleading or differently interpreted captions to genuine photos or videos, cutting parts of real statements or changing their context to create a different meaning, attributing completely fabricated statements or quotations to specific individuals, and presenting old photos, videos or news as if they were recent events.

From what has been learned from speaking to fact-checkers, analysts and law enforcement officials, 10 tactics are most commonly used to spread disinformation in the country through deepfakes and cheapfakes.
Video as the dominant medium
As the election draws closer, the scale of political disinformation is increasing. At least 13 top and high-profile leaders from several political parties have already fallen victim to such incidents.

An analysis of misinformation trends from July to September last year was published on 29 October by the fact-checking organisation Dismislab. Based on data from eight local fact-checking organisations, the report said that video was the main medium for spreading false information during that period, accounting for 66 per cent of all fact-checked content.

Compared to the previous three months (April-June 2025), the use of graphics, images and written posts declined. In other words, as the election approaches, the spread of confusion through AI-generated fake videos is increasing.

There have also been incidents of creating fake graphics modelled on media photo cards, television scrawls or news portal designs, using fabricated numbers or statistics, forging screenshots or documents, and coordinated campaigns in which the same false information is spread simultaneously from multiple pages and accounts.

The widespread circulation of various types of misinformation and video-based disinformation in the months leading up to the election has also been highlighted in an analysis by the fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner.

Rumor Scanner says that by nature, 1,051 were outright falsehoods, 253 were distorted information, 132 were misleading, three were partially false and two were partially true. This shows that unchecked and deliberately fabricated falsehoods were the main tools for spreading disinformation.
According to the organisation, 1,441 instances of misinformation were identified between October and December last year. Of these, 956 were political disinformation. Video-based misinformation was the most prevalent, with 651 cases, followed by text-based misinformation at 550 and image-based misinformation at 245.

Rumor Scanner says that by nature, 1,051 of these were outright falsehoods, 253 were distorted information, 132 were misleading, three were partially false and two were partially true. This shows that unchecked and deliberately fabricated falsehoods were the main tools for spreading disinformation during this period.

A Dismislab report published on 6 January says that between 16 November and 15 December, nine fact-checking organisations in Bangladesh identified and debunked 63 false election-related claims. In the previous month, from 16 October to 15 November, the number was 50, meaning false claims increased by around 26 per cent. During this time, fabricated statements and quotations were used the most.​

 

[Saif]

Security concerns before election

The 13th national election is barely a month away. Now, is the atmosphere congenial to holding a general election? If maintenance of law and order is a prerequisite for holding a free, fair and peaceful poll, a unanimous verdict would be in the negative. Killings by shooting, beating, hacking and s

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Security concerns before election

Neil Ray
Published :
Jan 11, 2026 23:32
Updated :
Jan 11, 2026 23:32

The 13th national election is barely a month away. Now, is the atmosphere congenial to holding a general election? If maintenance of law and order is a prerequisite for holding a free, fair and peaceful poll, a unanimous verdict would be in the negative. Killings by shooting, beating, hacking and stabbing have almost become a daily routine. It is not just mob violence instigated with an ulterior motive to take someone's life that is of concern, there are several cases of clandestine political vendetta in recent time. In the majority of such incidents, the victims are from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the party tipped for winning the election. The latest such victim is Azizur Rahman Musabbir, a senior leader of the Bangladesh Swechhasebak Dal who once held the post of general secretary of this wing in Dhaka City north.

All such murders in pre-poll violence did not receive due attention because of the widespread shock and outrage Inquilab Manch convener Sharif Osman bin Hadi's killing caused. Secretary General of the BNP, Fakhrul Islam Alamgir lamented that the government was least bothered about the killing of several leaders of his party. Again, a senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed complained that the killing of Azizur Rahman was pre-planned. The two aggrieved leaders' complaints point at something ominous. What is important is to admit that political murders are all pre-planned, rarely carried out from personal vengeance.

A lot of calculations go into taking a life of political rivals. When such murders become almost a routine, question must be asked if those are carried out under a blueprint. In this country, human life could not be cheaper. People's cruelty and barbarity have crossed all limits by this time. The way a group of people suddenly turn violent on the hearsay that someone has stolen something or was trying to steal or desecrated the holy book is shocking. Insanity knows no bound when they maltreat a human being---one of their kind. They take the law into their own hands to deliver the death penalty.

The government's laidback attitude and reaction to such deaths is in fact responsible, by default, for instigating the political elements to go for murder of the opponents. There is nothing to be surprised if a party with their similar murky past, has been the sponsor of the selective murders. The murders of local political activists including the Swechhasebak leader in Dhaka, Jashore, Shariatpur and Narasingdi point to the fact that these are committed with one common objective in mind. Although, media reports do not highlight how popular the murdered men were in their respective areas, it can be assumed that their popularity proved fatal for them. The opponents may have calculated that if alive they would prove vital for election campaign in favour of the rival parliamentary candidates in their respective constituencies.

So fragile is the law and order right at this moment, the interim government and the Election Commission (EC) will find it tough to manage the situation for the month running up to the election day. The interim government has never given a good account of bringing the lawlessness under control. Even the inspector general of the police (IG) candidly admitted that if there is political pressure, it is difficult to manage the general election. True, cooperation from the political parties is vital for holding election. But if lawlessness cannot be reined in at the grassroots level, maintaining discipline in election proves even tougher.

Both members of civil society and ordinary people are apprehensive of a peaceful election because of the pre-poll violence. The top brass of the interim government has often asserted that this election will be an exemplary one. Surely, this assertion is not in the negative sense. But if appears that the government has not done its homework to hold such an election. There is no point blaming the EC which is yet to make its presence felt. It has asked for sufficient contingents of law enforcement agencies during the election time. But such agencies are incapable of providing security beyond the poll venues.

This is exactly why there is a need for ground work well before the election day. The police are yet to command esteem from the public, least of all from the leaders of the July-August uprising. There could not be a better example of this lack of respect and decency in an incident when a leader of the student against discrimination (SAD) threatens the officer-in-charge of Shayestaganj police station under Habiganj. A section of SAD members and the police cannot see eye to eye as yet. How can the agency control, without active help from border guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and the army, the law and order during election. Intelligence services should have long been deployed with the assignment of detection of high-risk poll centres. Even if such ground works are duly done, people need to be assured of security by the actions taken during the one month left to remove threats posed to peaceful holding of the scheduled election.​

 

[Saif]

Entire nation was punished in the name of election organised with people’s money: Yunus

Commission report reveals irregularities in 2014, 2018 and 2024 elections

www.thedailystar.net

Entire nation was punished in the name of election organised with people’s money: Yunus

Commission report reveals irregularities in 2014, 2018 and 2024 elections

By Star Online Report

Photo: CA's Press Wing

A government inquiry commission has revealed that in the 2018 national election, ballots were stamped overnight in 80 percent of polling centres to secure victory for the Awami League, with voter turnout figures exceeding 100 percent in some locations.


The findings were submitted this afternoon to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus by the five-member commission led by Justice Shamim Hasnain at Jamuna.


The commission investigated electoral irregularities in the 2014, 2018, and 2024 parliamentary elections, noting that during this period, control of the electoral process shifted away from the Election Commission (EC) and into the hands of the administration.

After receiving the report, the chief adviser said, “We had heard about vote rigging, we knew some of it. But the way the entire process was shamelessly distorted, the system twisted and crushed, and a verdict written on paper as they pleased -- this must be placed before the nation. A full record must be kept.”


He added that the entire nation was punished in the name of elections organised with public money.

“The people of this country looked on helplessly. They could do nothing. To give the people some relief, the faces of all those involved must be brought to light. We must know who did it, how they did it. And we must ensure that such election theft can never happen again.”

The report detailed that in the 2014 election, 153 constituencies were uncontested, while polls in the remaining 147 were staged as “competitive” but were entirely pre-arranged to keep the Awami League in power.


Facing global criticism for the uncontested polls, the party adopted a mission to make the 2018 election appear competitive, drawing the BNP and other opposition parties into participation without realising the scale of manipulation.


In the 2024 election, when opposition parties did not participate, dummy candidates were fielded as a deceptive tactic to portray it as "competitive."

Due to limited time, it was not possible to identify individuals involved in election irregularities or determine their specific roles, said the commission.​