National Desk
Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah on Tuesday reiterated the Election Commission’s commitment to steering Bangladesh’s election system toward credibility through sustained reforms ahead of the 2026 national elections.
He made the statement while inaugurating the “Citizen Observation for Inclusive and Accountable Elections in Bangladesh: National Elections, 2026” project at the NGO Affairs Bureau conference hall in Dhaka. The initiative, led by the Alliance for Fair Elections and Democracy (AFED)—a coalition of 27 civil society organisations representing 27 stakeholder groups from across the country—aims to strengthen election monitoring by engaging citizen observers nationwide.
Sanaullah said the Commission is working continuously to close the gap between public expectations and ground realities by introducing legal and procedural changes to ensure fairer elections. “There remains a considerable gap between expectation and reality. The challenge is to coordinate these expectations with facts to organise a free, fair, and participatory election,” he noted.
He emphasised that the Commission considers reforms a gradual process, where each successive election should be better than the last. “If we can achieve the minimum reforms and build momentum, the first step will be completed. The more elections that follow, the stronger the system will become,” he said.
The Election Commission has launched a series of legal, institutional, and technological reforms since 2025 as part of its roadmap for the 2026 general election. Key reform priorities include voter list verification, political party compliance monitoring, election-time law enforcement coordination, campaign finance transparency, ballot logistics strengthening, and digital oversight mechanisms for polling operations.
According to Election Commission sources, reforms under consideration and implementation include tightening candidate affidavit disclosures, upgrading electoral dispute resolution protocols, standardising polling officer recruitment and training, increasing the use of real-time election monitoring technologies, reinforcing constituency boundary review procedures, and improving political party registration compliance audits.
Bangladesh has held 12 parliamentary elections since 1973. However, the country’s electoral system has faced recurring concerns around voter turnout credibility, administrative neutrality, election-time governance, campaign conduct, and polling-day transparency. The Commission’s current reform agenda is part of a broader national discourse on rebuilding trust in democratic institutions, including elections, after political transitions in 2024.